June 17, 2026 • 37 mins
SMNTY scrolls through the history of webtoons for our first ever webtoon pick, M. Victoria Robado's work #Blessed. It follows bisexual lead Joanna who is struggling to juggle her job, romance, and the seven gods courting her.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Sanny and Smantha and welcome to stuff.
When I never told your predictive I heard.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You welcome to another book club. Yes, this is a
Pride book club. Of course, I feel like most of
you already know. Yes, June is Pride month in the US,
so we are going to do Pride themed things. So
for this month's Pride edition of book Club, we are
(00:31):
doing our first web tunes featuring M Victoria Rabbado. And
I'm really sorry if I said that wrong. She is
an Argentinian artist slash writer, so I'm probably going to
just call them m for now since I don't quite
know how to say her last name.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
But this is hers.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
And just a bit of history about webtoons, because I
know we haven't really talked about it. We talked about
manga recently, but we didn't really talk about manhua or webtoons,
which are Korean editions.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
So just real quick.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
During the financial crisis in South Korea in the nineties,
the buying and renting of comics in that area suffered
pretty badly, causing many comic stores to close down. Like
it went from like eighty percent by rate to twenty percent.
That's how badly the industry was doing. And on top
of that, the Japanese literature was previously banned in South Korea.
(01:27):
All of a sudden that was lifted in the late nineties,
which meant there was many more mangas that were on sale.
There caused a little dip in the South Korean market obviously,
and at this time they also do rentals outside of
just outright buying.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Do we have a system like that?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I know we can borrow from like libraries, but they
actually had comic stores that you can just rent out
and bring it back.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Do we have system like that? I think some places
do that. I don't know how common it is, but
I believe some places do that.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Okay, I've seen the men Key drama, so we go
the little I know about the nineties cultures. So with
all of that, this really caused a really big low
for the comic industry. And then add the new fingled
internet to be mixed in, and this just added to
the crash. So not many people were getting any kind
of money off of their comics or their animations or
(02:20):
their writings, so this was a pretty big deal. But
like most mediums, they changed their delivery tactic to grow
with the Internet with the creation of webtoons, which is
web plus cartoons. I feel like that might be obvious,
but just in case, webtoons are named after that which
grew into and has grown into a huge industry. And
(02:41):
I mean huge, I mean multi billion dollars industry for
one company. So the one the app that I used,
which was webtoons, they are like, they make like five billion.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I think they're at that mark right at this point.
I'm like, good.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Gosh, because most of their stuff is free. You can
get a lot of their stuff free, and you have
a lot of ads, and that's kind of how they
make their revenue. You can also, I think go to
a premium status that might cost money. I didn't look
too much into it, but yes, they're a multi billion
dollar industry at this point. And with that chunk of
the k dramas that you see that many people are
(03:17):
watching have been webtoons turned TV and movie dramas. Netflix
has really jumped on board, I believe, in like the
two thousands of era and really decided this is their way,
this is what they're going to do, and take those
webtoons and finance them into being big market dramas.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And it's working.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It's working obviously with the help of smartphones. The demand
for webtoon has only grown. It's digital format with the
vertical scrolling, which is what the whole thing is. Oh yeah,
we just keep on going and fun art and graphics
seems to be a match made in comics heaven, so
this is their thing. In twenty fourteen, the apps soon
spread around the world, with a launch in the US
(03:58):
and across the globe. You can get different types of
webtoons with different ways to read. Some again offer subscription
services which would give you early access, while some rely
on ads and views. Some others offer just chapter by
chapter purchases, which I thought was interesting, and some offer
it for free, but it comes at a later date
from the original release, so if you want it immediately,
(04:20):
you pay for that premium, or you could wake a
few months and then get it for free.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
So they have a different tactics on.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
How they deliver these types of webtuns, and much like
fan fiction, the story can be as long or as
short as the writer or artist.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Wants to like.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Some have continue stories that last years. One of the
longest running ones is called The Sound of Your Heart,
which went from two thousand and six to twenty twenty,
so it was a fourteen year run and it had
over twelve hundred episodes, so there's some out there that
like counts at three thousand. I believe there's a Chinese
version of it, so like, there's a lot to be said,
(05:00):
you control it. And as for our featured story for
our book club, from what I can tell, there are
two seasons with sixty four episodes in total, or chapters.
They call them episodes from what I've seen, but also
known as chapters.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
But it's currently not finished.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, so m seems to have taken a hiatus and
there's no current date of when and if she plans
to continue, so it's up in the air. Also, when
we first picked this, I didn't realize that the before
not a Korean author. In fact, she's an Argentinian author.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But I love the fact.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That this was a story with a bisexual woman lead
that didn't over sexualize anyone. I think that was one
of the first things that popped up about, like finally
a story with a bisexual lead who was not being
over sexualized. And I'm like, you know what, Yeah, that's true,
And this one is very cute because you know, sometimes
manhuas and mangas are skilled. There's been a lot of
(06:01):
accusations and I've seen it just recently where some of
the web tunes are being called out for a sexist, misogynistic,
racist takes. So it's kind of like you have to
kind of be careful, like anything else.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
What you get.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And this is one of those reviews about why this
was a top one, especially for the queer community, because
it's actually nice and a fun story with a good
plot that doesn't necessarily sexualize over sexualize anyone, not like
it doesn't really sexualize anyone other than their companionship kind
of thing. So it was nice to see that. So
(06:37):
that's why we did pick this one. It was one
of the top recommended ones. Easy read, fun, fun art.
The illustrations are fantastic. She does an amazing job and
if you want to go and check her site out again,
it's m dot Victoria Rabbido or rabato, it's our obad
o and you can check her out. But the book
we're talking about, or the actual webtain we're talking about,
(06:59):
is hashtag Blessed, so it is a translation, so you
will see some like oh yeah, you can tell this
with pot parts probably harder to translate, including some of
the names of the gods.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So bear with me because I didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I can't get those pronunciations, all of them, so I
am guessing. And this webtoon was created in twenty seventeen
and leased, with the second one released the next year,
and I know they are now available in hard copies.
So if you want to actually be able to, like Annie,
have something physically there, because I know that's how she
feels about her movies and wanting for DVDs. A lot
(07:35):
of people just feel the same way about things like
this where you can't get you only have digital copies,
but you don't know the Internet could disappear.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah, so if you want.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
A hard copy, I believe the first one is definitely
out and available on different platforms. The second one had
a Kickstarter.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I believe to get it to that format.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm not sure for sure that that's out though, but
you can go check it out or help with the kickstarter,
you know, to have that actual hard copy. But very
cute indeed. So there you go a little bit of history. Yes,
and now we're here, okay, so let's talk characters again.
This we're only talking about season one, and it does
end on a cliffhanger, so I think there's a likelihood
(08:18):
that I'll be returning, even though apparently it's gonna end
on another cliffhanger and Wamy over find out the ending right.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
To your own ending. This is what I do, and
my fan fiction fails me.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean, apparently there's a lot of people who have
I've seen a little bit of like people like I've
got this version.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I was like, oh sweet. Anyway, so there you go.
But let's talk characters.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
We have the main character, Joanna, who is a social
media manager and dating advice writer for a magazine. And
in the story, we have seven gods courting Joanna to
create a demi god to rule the world.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
We'll get into that.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
In the pod, we have Dariel, Trail, Alvis, Zatis, Zidabi, Avusavia,
and bless X, which she calls Alex because she could
not read his name. I'm glad to have that one name, Alex,
because everything else I'm guessing. We also have her roommate
Maara and her ex boyfriend Jake. So those are some
of the characters that you need to know.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The plot, so we have Joyna, who is struggling with
her love life, her job, and just her ability to
communicate with others. Oh, with her jobs centered around dating
a love life, she decided she too wanted to try
out the dating world and downloaded a new dating app,
and because she thought maybe she was being too picky,
decided to swipe yes to all of the people, which
(09:30):
then turned into a binding contract she didn't realize she
signed up for, with several different gods trying to procreate
with her to rule the world. Literally, there's a prophecy
in which they must find someone to procreate with in
order to take over the world, and it's kind of
like they're buying for this one queen. They call her
my Queen in hopes to be chosen by her to
(09:53):
have a baby to rule the world.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yep, and they are so cute.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
It is so cute.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So in an effort to stall and figure out what
to do, she decides to go on a date with
each of them, starting with Zabadi, who immediately sweeps her away,
like literally carries her off and flies away. On their date,
he takes her to a fancy restaurant where she can
tell that he knows a lot more about humans than
he let on, and then she expected. Turns out he
(10:21):
has dated a human before and she died somehow a long, long,
long time ago, he says, but he truly loved her
and still thought about her, including a book that the
old girlfriend called girlfriend gave him about romance.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
All of this goes.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Down with the assistance of Daniel, who has been watching
and like, kind of she's kind of like the foil
in this entire plot.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
You trust her, but you don't.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
She is a demon. She's proudly a demon, she says it.
But at the same time you can tell she kind.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Of has some good deeds or thoughts or intentions.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, yeah, so she as she's trying process she being Joanna.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
All the new information.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
She is visited by the gods at her workplace the
following day, where she was almost fired for not doing
her work in time, and she lies a lot about
this about like.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Oh I'm almost done, Oh no, I got it.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I'll like all that, And somehow she gets shrunk, like
literally as a tiny person and into a cute other
form of animation, changing the style of the art and
the way is drawn. In Joanna's web tunes, she has
a couple of chapters dedicated to Q and DA's and
she talks about her style of drawing and why she
switches this up and how much she likes it.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
So you need to go into that look that web.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So with that and with all of that kerfuffle, Joanna
is the ends up being suspended from work because not
only does she not have her work done, a lot
of disaster has been happening around the office, seemingly around her.
So Carla the boss was like, you know what, You're
just gonna be suspended, sending her into a set scrolling
spiral depression. Whena realizes her ex Jake is in town
(12:02):
and rushes with her next date of Usavia to find him,
so using Avasavia as a ruse to try to hunt
him down while also.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Pretending to be on a date with her, which is
not nice.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
She catches up to him at a coffee shop, where
he reminds her that she actually left him because she
wanted a new start in a new city that didn't
remind her of home, so she had broken his heart
and kind of forgot yea and kind of lied to
herself that he broke her heart. Awkward and realizing not
only did. She upset Jake, but she also upset Avasavia.
(12:35):
She vows to do better and make sure to go
on the best dates possible. So her next date is
(13:01):
with Zatis, who is very small and very quiet and
apparently since can sometimes stop time, rewind time, undo things.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Isn't interesting.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Trying to make it the best dage she could, she
tries her hardest to get more information out of him.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He is not interested. He is very very quiet.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
He just seemingly just sits there and stairs, which doesn't
seem to go well until Treyer comes bursting in not
looking like himself to still the date. So doing all
of these dates, they all have like a chaperone to
watch the other to make sure there's no trickery during
the process. So all the things and something happens for Trayor.
He falls asleep and comes back almost a total different person,
(13:41):
very conceited, very over the top. He takes her away
where they go dancing, watches movies and all the.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
While Zetis is very upset.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
He just didn't get his flawn, Like there's nothing else
that he seems to be upset about except for the flawn.
Soon during the whole chaos Treyer falls asleep, passes out,
and comes back looking more like himself.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Turns out he.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Has a twin with an who is an evil half
who he absorbed at one point, and he's sometimes a
twin comes out to try to take over. So like
that was the whole back and forth that no one
knew about, So there was like another.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Contestant because of this.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Joyna says she will know that was his date and
she's not giving another one, so that he has stated
is over. That's a punishment. But he tries to hide
this from the rest of the group for some reason.
And on top of that, Joyna is able to get
Zeta's some flawn, so all is good there, he smiles.
She's like perfect, I did the best date ever. When
returning home, though, we find out Maya has found her
(14:35):
date book, Joyna's date book, and Joanna finally stops lying
to her and tells her what is going on. By
the way, the relationship between the two of them is
very sweet. Turns out that Joyna was very kind to
her when Maya was at her lowest, supported her make
sure she had rent, helped her get a job, boosted
her confidence. So they're best of friends very cute. Then
(14:56):
we have Dariel who shows up and says, it's my
turn go on a date.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
So they go on a date.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
She is taken to Limbo by Dariel, although Alvos objects
because he was like, I have a date. Here we
find out what actually happens when the contract is destroyed
or if the human doesn't follow through Demon's gods, and
even the human could die. Dariel has seen this three
different times and barely survived the first time, while the
(15:22):
second time the human who was Zibadi's love the girlfriend
she actually dies in order to save the rest of them,
and so Dariel decided to bring Joanna to Limbo where
they could not be found. But soon all the other
gods come and rescue her. In part two, thanks to Mara,
who has told them what was going on during this time,
(15:44):
they could come and rescue her. Dariel gets mad because
she's like, you ruined it all. If we were in Limbo,
the ultimate, I guess God wouldn't find them and they
wouldn't be able to fulfill the death of all the gods.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So all this happened.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
They go back and forth and finally Joanna's left alone
has the phone and then throws the phone. It destroys
her phone, and then we hear maybe a clash, and
then the end. But during this whole time, we find
out a lot of the gods have fallen for Joanna
and definitely cares for Joanna and tells her to do
(16:20):
what she needs to do and they'll be okay, and
that they will save her and they will protect her
their queen. And that's how Seasoned one yans. Did I
forget anything any nothing major? I don't think nothing major,
all right, So with this we I guess we would
call these different themes. I guess it was just more
like topics within that we could address from the webtoons
(16:41):
because it's very sweet. Obviously, there's a lot in Joanna's
perspective of who she thinks she is, so it was
kind of interesting how they took what she does as
in like she lies about everything she really does. She
kind of like puts herself as a victim. As story unfolds,
we realize maybe she's not so much the victim, but
that she has let her anxieties just overtake her. So
(17:04):
the first thing with the job, like she talks about
doing all these things and trying to be good at
these things. But then we find out she doesn't turn
things in, that she doesn't uphold the requests. Apparently she
likes to talk to herself. Even before the gods came around,
the coworkers were talking about her. At that point, Carla
had given her chance after chance after chance. But at
first we thought maybe Carla was I thought.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I don't know about you. Carla was being too mean
and bullying her.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
But it kind of was like, uh, no, she's frustrated
because apparently she's given her so many chances to actually do.
Give her the updates, give her that email, give her
that article, like she's had time. And at one point
she goes through her emails to find an old article
to see if she could redo it because she knows
she didn't do her work.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So you're like, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
And then we find out that Jake is not what
she thinks, because we think that at first, like he
has truly broken her heart and she can't let it
go and he's done something. I thought maybe he was
like gonna be the villain in this whole story. Yeah,
you know, by the way he built up. And then
as you realize and he's like do you not remember
you told me to leave you alone. I'm just here
to help my family. I was willing to move with
(18:09):
you and you said no. Yeah, like, oh, Joyana, and
then her constantly lying to Maa. Whether it's about not
pretending to not be on the app, the dating app
pretending to because which is this was twenty seventeen, so
I guess, or are we still in the era of
hiding online dating?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I don't think so. But it does have the element
of she was writing about dating advice. Yeah, and we've
talked about that before, of people questioning your advice if
you are single, true or yeah, So I wonder if
there was a part of that going on there.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Maybe you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
And then also we found out like Mara did not
care and she easily believed her and so she didn't
need to even lie to her like that, and she
was doing everything because she cared about her. So we
did see that unfold in a way that not necessarily
because like, yes, Joanna is the main character, but she
has also put herself in this stress, but also in
(19:09):
that same level, like you think when you just think
that she's the worst person, maybe in the story you
have Mara's version of who Joanna is, who is the
best person, who willing to sacrifice and give up time
and help her new research, is encouraging and loving and
giving like in that same realm, So like even Joyna's
(19:31):
second version of herself, she's not seeing herself. Yeah, and
I thought that was an interesting look into her personality
as well.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, And I think the whole plot device of having
seven potentially different perspectives of Joyanna and seeing how all
these different people see her, I do think that's fascinating
because you can be at your weakest and one day
(20:00):
somebody and look really terrible, and then at your best
with somebody and really make their their day or make
them feel safe or whatever it is. And so it
was cool to see the outside perspective of Joanna. But
I also agree she's just consumed with anxiety. So she's
(20:24):
like a self saboteur. Excellent, Yeah, as a self sabotaging herself.
And so yeah, she was apparently painting this vision of
herself when it came to her past relationship with Jake,
(20:44):
when it came to her work, and she seems kind
of impulsive where she's very Oh, I don't want to
do any of these people out get this happen, and
then oh my gosh, I want it. We're gonna have
the best states ever.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
So, I think she's just got a lot of figuring
out to do with herself.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yes, she does, and she's kind of discovering herself and
what she's willing to do for her people. I do
find so she is a complex character. I do really
appreciate that level. I don't think she gets into the
backstories of the gods in the first two because I've
seen some people be like, well, she come back to this.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I feel like she's set up.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
The Webtoons so she can, so it can be enduring.
It might be a lot because even in her like
autobiographical part in the web Tunes where she answers some questions,
like she's very cagy about what inspired her about.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
This into this webtoons.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I don't know why, because she like comes back to
it and she's like, I'm not gonna talk about it
right now. Also, like her anxiety and meeting people. She
talks about how like people might not think that she's
excited because she just gets so quiet and turns bright red.
Think maybe she's stressed out and doesn't want to talk
to them, but she's actually trying to figure out how
to handle it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
She's talked about going to.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Conventions because it's this is obviously blown up in a
way that she didn't know it would blow up at
the time. So it's interesting to see her own perspective.
So obviously her and the main character may be similar
into that level, but with that not really sure if
we're gonna get that insight on the rest of the
(22:26):
gods and who they are. We kind of get like
we almost get a glimpse of like who may be
the good guy versus the bad guys, which none of
them are really bad guys, but they have a little
more of a sinister plot line in this one.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Alvos and Dariel seems to be a little more in
that lines as where you see like Zibadi and Alvosavia
really caring about her as well as Alex. Alex seems
to be all about her, who turns into a cat
for her, which is a funny scene because he also
has a film mouse.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
She's like, why do you have felt mouths like, don't
worry about it. So it's very comical, but it is.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Interesting to see that level of like depth in the
very small amount of like pages in that also this
prophecy that they have to find this is the third
attempt They've yet to be able to get this done
to rule the world obviously, but it seems like even
the gods don't know about it outside of Dariel and Zibadi,
(23:26):
that two of them are like more aware of the
consequences as the rest of them just see this as
a competition, and then it kind of hits them like,
oh wait, okay, what is this prophecy?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Who is doing this?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And why do we have such a contract that would
allow for this. It seems ridiculously over the top and
obviously very dangerous to them. So we don't know quite
that depth of that prophecy outside of that small agreement.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, we get some hints of it at the end
through Dariel most but when they're in limbo, there's like
the creepy voice and Dariel refers to her.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, as ominous her, she's here, ominous her.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, that is coming for them. I did think this
was a fun take on the you signed a contract
without really looking at the details, right, because we have
seen that I mean like a little mermaid has that.
Like a bunch of things throughout time have had that,
but in our time of dating online, I thought this
was a fun take of the well you accepted read
(24:34):
it or not, that's whoopsy, that's on you. But also
the I have to say I was taken aback when
they were like, yes, we must have children, we must
have a child. That's part of this prophecy. So yeah,
that's a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
That's a lot to just bring in and put on someone.
Maybe she doesn't want kids.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And then then she was like, wait, do you understand
procreation right like, because they're like, according to what we
see and how they're portrayed, they're both men and women.
So she's like and they're like, oh, we got it,
don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, And so I was like.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh, that's okay, that's an interesting take. And this again,
also we have the friendship portion with her and Maya.
I really liked how quietly Marria just comes through, just
like comes in. And at one point the Q and A,
they ask what is Maya's favorite color? She's like hot pink,
and she's obviously like a little bit gothed out.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, So it's very cute, but like she's willing to
go to Limbo with the gods to see where she's at.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
But although the.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Same time, Joanna is a diehard for maraa threatening them,
like if you do anything to her, she'd better be
like safe.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
All these things. I thought that was really sweet.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
And then I kind of look like there was a
friendship among the gods as well, especially when it came
to Joyna.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, which was it was cool to see they did
have sort of in group clicks. But overall I thought
it was a nice portrayal of something competitive but not
I don't know, hateful too strong a word, but like
friendly competition. There's certainly some characters want it more than
(26:19):
others for maybe the wrong reasons or like I don't know,
they just want to win, but it's not portrayed as
if they hate each other for it. They're kind of
all in this together and are thinking I'm the one
that can win this, but it's not looking down on
anybody else necessarily, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
And then of course we're all also coming in to
talk about how Joyanna has to quickly get it together
and take responsibility, and she does.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
That pretty well.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Like in the end when she kind of sits down
and assesses her job situation, her relationship with Jake, how
she's handling Mara, how.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
She's handling the gods.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Like she comes into a full swing of like, all right,
these are the things that I know I need to do.
These are the things I'm gonna face, and this is
how I'm gonna do it. She might be one of
those that needs the distraction though, because obviously each point
was because of something, if that makes sense, Like she
started the dating app because she felt like she needed
to do the next article or get into the dating
(27:39):
world so she can be seen dating and understand all
these things. The next portion of like, Okay, I need
to figure out this whole like in the world things,
so let me figure out how to distract them. And
then the next part was the job, and then trying
to save Carla it's from being tiny. And then the
next part was Jake, and then the next motivation was
apologizing to the gods like all these things. The next
(27:59):
part was like saving Mera, and then you know, it's like,
I guess we all need motivation. But like each part
of these things pushed her to grow into the next
understanding and facing the responsibility and reality of what was coming. Yeah,
so it was it was like, okay, okay, she has
to grow very quickly to try to save the world.
I guess that's the thing that happens. That's that's a
whole thing, like the slacker that has to come and
(28:22):
get it together and they end up being the one
saving the world.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yes, yes, and she has the added kind of trope
of the anxious klutzy of course a girl. But you know,
also I get why it's a trope. But you've got
seven gods who are trying to get with you. It's
(28:47):
a little boost to your ego. But she's like, you know,
at first, very much anxiety about it, but then it
kind of evolves into I like how she's trying to
She decides, I want to make it good dates for them.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, I gotta make it up to that.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, but I get why. You know, that's a fun truth.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
And the thing that's not really mentioned but it's just obvious.
It's like, yeah, she is bisexual. Like that's not like
I think I appreciated the web tunes because it wasn't
brought up, It wasn't necessarily a thing. There was no
moment of like, but you're this other than like biologically,
how we're gonna have children? Yeah, and that's kind of like,
(29:29):
oh okay, and that's the end. Like none of that
was a concern or question. It just was okay, let's go.
And I appreciate that. Nothing none of this about finding herself,
nothing about like figuring out all these things, none of
these like just what is she experimenting? Its just is
like it just is what it is, and like she
has no there's no communication like about whether or not
(29:52):
she would.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Of course, she swiped yes to.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
All of them, so like they knew obviously that they
thought she was interested, because that's why you swipe ys right?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Is that swipe right and then left is now right?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah, for most of the accounts, I think so I've
never done it.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
It's been a long time.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I've been out of the game for a long time,
so I can't quite remember. But like with that, I
thought that was I thought that was a really like understated,
big statement.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I agree, And I think that the fact that it's
not really discussed too much. But also she's not, as
you said, over sexualized, which is usually something that happens
to a bisexual character. She's really not, but like a
lot of times she's folded up in a blanket and
(30:42):
like sleeping until length two pm or whatever. And that's
not to say she doesn't have moments of like she
dresses up and looks great like, so she's not at
the reverse end of it either, right, So I liked
that too. This is so you know, as I'm saying it,
it sounds like the bare necessity.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Right, No, it just feels like this should be more common,
yeah than not. But the fact is, like it to
be as treasured as it is, as it should be,
as it is, like for those who are in the
bisexual community, feeling like, oh, this is for us, because
there's no question about this. This is no explanation in this.
(31:22):
There's no having to make excuses or reasons why or
give yourself a big story of trauma about how you
came to this point, like it just and just here
and it's just a fun fairy tale.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I don't I'm not saying.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Fairy tale because it's like you have like gods involved
in this conversation, you know, like it's a good narration
fiction that has none of that baggage.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Instead you have.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
The normalized baggage yea that everyone can understand.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
And I think a lot of the gods too, are
they play with gender norms like there were some of them.
I was like, looking, oh, yeah, actually I would have
put you more in a feminine category. Maybe that is
how the god identifies. I don't know, but they definitely
don't bring any question to that either. No, Like, this
is how, Yeah, I present myself and that's just it.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
This is who I am for this world. Except for
the fact that Dariel, who says she's a demon has horns,
actually has horns. Yeah, I'm like, oh, okay, I think
I was very pointed. But yeah, so I think that's
like the small bit to this that it's not a
big theme for them, Like it's yeah, everything else is
(32:33):
a big theme, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, And I really appreciated that thing is good.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
So yeah, there you go. What did you think about
this webtoons? Is this your first webtoons?
Speaker 1 (32:44):
This was my first webtoon? Yes, and I really enjoyed it,
you know, I love comics. Yes, and it was such
an easy read. I'm an old timer who does it
on my laptop, but it was easy enough on there
and art was really pretty and I liked the switching
up style. Else that was fun that she switched it up,
(33:04):
and it was helpful because there were a lot of characters,
so I was like, okay, let me keep jack of
who's who and who I think she's gonna end up with, right,
But no, No, it was really fun and I feel
like for something so short, she accomplished a lot right,
And also like character development wise, she accomplished a lot.
I think so too.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Did you have a favorite character, I feel like.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
There were some that I liked. I'm probably Mary.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Maria Lara Mara. I'm calling her a Mara. She was
a good character, I think because.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
She also like brings in a little bit of like
difference in the character, like because it seems like Joyne
is chaos constantly like going and marriage is like a
kind of that Daria's friend character, Yeah, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Jane? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Her name is Jane and Daria who just kind of
comes in like, yeah, what's going on? That's how I
see Mara speaking. Although I did really like Alex's character too.
He was a little bit needy, but then he was like, hey,
she gave me a name, and he wears a T
shirt and then sweatpants with his name on his butt. Hey, hey,
(34:17):
the winds wins and wins, and he was very excited
turned a cat. He's like, I will turned into a
cat for her. But I did like those two characters,
and yeah, this was mine first one, Like I said,
very interesting, Like I like this idea. I know, like
in a lot of K dramas. This is a big deal.
This is one of the biggest careers that I've seen,
like managers, webtuns, app creators, like the are producers who
(34:41):
have to go and like chase after their authors to
get like them to finish writing out which I'm wondering
if this was one of those situations.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
As well as like I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
To think of the jobs that I see the managers
also being like an idol and reporters. But webtoons is
one of the big like plot points getting people to
write web tunes and the competition end webtunes too.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I bet apparently, Well, now you've read one.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, I've read one that doesn't have an.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Ending, not yet, maybe one day, maybe one day.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
She's got a lot of projects out there if you
look at her stuff, like, she's got a lot under
her belt.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
So she's pretty busy, I'm guessing yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah. Sometimes I wonder too with people who didn't expect
to get big if you had the ending already, or
like you panic because it's never expecting someone to I
just say this as a lowly fan fiction writer sometimes
like oh, I wasn't expecting so many people to read this,
(35:47):
and now I.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Got Now you better get it together.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, I bet she had at least a loose idea.
I kind of felt like I could see where it
was going towards. Yeah, but I don't know. We'll have
to wait and see and hope it's true. Yes, do
you think she's do you?
Speaker 3 (36:06):
If they? What is your prediction on who Joanna might choose?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
So I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
I was thinking the last guy who was like Dariel Alvos. Yes,
she hasn't gone on date with me. I was thinking
him them or she get back for Jake Jake.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I'm all honestly thinking maybe mahra Oh. I would love that,
like they ended up being together.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yes, because like she has been there for they've been
there for each other, and she's so protective of her
m h.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I would be into that, so that might be her witness.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, a lot of characters.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
So anyway, all right, Well, if you readers, if you
have some web tunes recommendations.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yes, we're in, Yes, please let us know. If you
have your own predictions for what will happen in this,
please let us know those as well. You can email
us at Hello at Stuffenever Told You dot com. You
can find us on blue Sky at home stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok that stuff We've Never Told
You for us on YouTube. We have some merchandise at
(37:18):
coompuro and we have a book you can get wherever
you get your books. Thanks is always to our super
producer Tandler and our executive producer Maya. Thank you and
thanks to you for listening Stuff Never Told Us. Direction
of my Heart Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the art Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Sanny and Smantha and welcome to stuff.
When I never told your predictive I heard.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You welcome to another book club. Yes, this is a
Pride book club. Of course, I feel like most of
you already know. Yes, June is Pride month in the US,
so we are going to do Pride themed things. So
for this month's Pride edition of book Club, we are
(00:31):
doing our first web tunes featuring M Victoria Rabbado. And
I'm really sorry if I said that wrong. She is
an Argentinian artist slash writer, so I'm probably going to
just call them m for now since I don't quite
know how to say her last name.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
But this is hers.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
And just a bit of history about webtoons, because I
know we haven't really talked about it. We talked about
manga recently, but we didn't really talk about manhua or webtoons,
which are Korean editions.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
So just real quick.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
During the financial crisis in South Korea in the nineties,
the buying and renting of comics in that area suffered
pretty badly, causing many comic stores to close down. Like
it went from like eighty percent by rate to twenty percent.
That's how badly the industry was doing. And on top
of that, the Japanese literature was previously banned in South Korea.
(01:27):
All of a sudden that was lifted in the late nineties,
which meant there was many more mangas that were on sale.
There caused a little dip in the South Korean market obviously,
and at this time they also do rentals outside of
just outright buying.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Do we have a system like that?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I know we can borrow from like libraries, but they
actually had comic stores that you can just rent out
and bring it back.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Do we have system like that? I think some places
do that. I don't know how common it is, but
I believe some places do that.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Okay, I've seen the men Key drama, so we go
the little I know about the nineties cultures. So with
all of that, this really caused a really big low
for the comic industry. And then add the new fingled
internet to be mixed in, and this just added to
the crash. So not many people were getting any kind
of money off of their comics or their animations or
(02:20):
their writings, so this was a pretty big deal. But
like most mediums, they changed their delivery tactic to grow
with the Internet with the creation of webtoons, which is
web plus cartoons. I feel like that might be obvious,
but just in case, webtoons are named after that which
grew into and has grown into a huge industry. And
(02:41):
I mean huge, I mean multi billion dollars industry for
one company. So the one the app that I used,
which was webtoons, they are like, they make like five billion.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I think they're at that mark right at this point.
I'm like, good.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Gosh, because most of their stuff is free. You can
get a lot of their stuff free, and you have
a lot of ads, and that's kind of how they
make their revenue. You can also, I think go to
a premium status that might cost money. I didn't look
too much into it, but yes, they're a multi billion
dollar industry at this point. And with that chunk of
the k dramas that you see that many people are
(03:17):
watching have been webtoons turned TV and movie dramas. Netflix
has really jumped on board, I believe, in like the
two thousands of era and really decided this is their way,
this is what they're going to do, and take those
webtoons and finance them into being big market dramas.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And it's working.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It's working obviously with the help of smartphones. The demand
for webtoon has only grown. It's digital format with the
vertical scrolling, which is what the whole thing is. Oh yeah,
we just keep on going and fun art and graphics
seems to be a match made in comics heaven, so
this is their thing. In twenty fourteen, the apps soon
spread around the world, with a launch in the US
(03:58):
and across the globe. You can get different types of
webtoons with different ways to read. Some again offer subscription
services which would give you early access, while some rely
on ads and views. Some others offer just chapter by
chapter purchases, which I thought was interesting, and some offer
it for free, but it comes at a later date
from the original release, so if you want it immediately,
(04:20):
you pay for that premium, or you could wake a
few months and then get it for free.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
So they have a different tactics on.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
How they deliver these types of webtuns, and much like
fan fiction, the story can be as long or as
short as the writer or artist.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Wants to like.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Some have continue stories that last years. One of the
longest running ones is called The Sound of Your Heart,
which went from two thousand and six to twenty twenty,
so it was a fourteen year run and it had
over twelve hundred episodes, so there's some out there that
like counts at three thousand. I believe there's a Chinese
version of it, so like, there's a lot to be said,
(05:00):
you control it. And as for our featured story for
our book club, from what I can tell, there are
two seasons with sixty four episodes in total, or chapters.
They call them episodes from what I've seen, but also
known as chapters.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
But it's currently not finished.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, so m seems to have taken a hiatus and
there's no current date of when and if she plans
to continue, so it's up in the air. Also, when
we first picked this, I didn't realize that the before
not a Korean author. In fact, she's an Argentinian author.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But I love the fact.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That this was a story with a bisexual woman lead
that didn't over sexualize anyone. I think that was one
of the first things that popped up about, like finally
a story with a bisexual lead who was not being
over sexualized. And I'm like, you know what, Yeah, that's true,
And this one is very cute because you know, sometimes
manhuas and mangas are skilled. There's been a lot of
(06:01):
accusations and I've seen it just recently where some of
the web tunes are being called out for a sexist, misogynistic,
racist takes. So it's kind of like you have to
kind of be careful, like anything else.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
What you get.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And this is one of those reviews about why this
was a top one, especially for the queer community, because
it's actually nice and a fun story with a good
plot that doesn't necessarily sexualize over sexualize anyone, not like
it doesn't really sexualize anyone other than their companionship kind
of thing. So it was nice to see that. So
(06:37):
that's why we did pick this one. It was one
of the top recommended ones. Easy read, fun, fun art.
The illustrations are fantastic. She does an amazing job and
if you want to go and check her site out again,
it's m dot Victoria Rabbido or rabato, it's our obad
o and you can check her out. But the book
we're talking about, or the actual webtain we're talking about,
(06:59):
is hashtag Blessed, so it is a translation, so you
will see some like oh yeah, you can tell this
with pot parts probably harder to translate, including some of
the names of the gods.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So bear with me because I didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I can't get those pronunciations, all of them, so I
am guessing. And this webtoon was created in twenty seventeen
and leased, with the second one released the next year,
and I know they are now available in hard copies.
So if you want to actually be able to, like Annie,
have something physically there, because I know that's how she
feels about her movies and wanting for DVDs. A lot
(07:35):
of people just feel the same way about things like
this where you can't get you only have digital copies,
but you don't know the Internet could disappear.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah, so if you want.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
A hard copy, I believe the first one is definitely
out and available on different platforms. The second one had
a Kickstarter.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I believe to get it to that format.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm not sure for sure that that's out though, but
you can go check it out or help with the kickstarter,
you know, to have that actual hard copy. But very
cute indeed. So there you go a little bit of history. Yes,
and now we're here, okay, so let's talk characters again.
This we're only talking about season one, and it does
end on a cliffhanger, so I think there's a likelihood
(08:18):
that I'll be returning, even though apparently it's gonna end
on another cliffhanger and Wamy over find out the ending right.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
To your own ending. This is what I do, and
my fan fiction fails me.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean, apparently there's a lot of people who have
I've seen a little bit of like people like I've
got this version.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I was like, oh sweet. Anyway, so there you go.
But let's talk characters.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
We have the main character, Joanna, who is a social
media manager and dating advice writer for a magazine. And
in the story, we have seven gods courting Joanna to
create a demi god to rule the world.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
We'll get into that.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
In the pod, we have Dariel, Trail, Alvis, Zatis, Zidabi, Avusavia,
and bless X, which she calls Alex because she could
not read his name. I'm glad to have that one name, Alex,
because everything else I'm guessing. We also have her roommate
Maara and her ex boyfriend Jake. So those are some
of the characters that you need to know.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The plot, so we have Joyna, who is struggling with
her love life, her job, and just her ability to
communicate with others. Oh, with her jobs centered around dating
a love life, she decided she too wanted to try
out the dating world and downloaded a new dating app,
and because she thought maybe she was being too picky,
decided to swipe yes to all of the people, which
(09:30):
then turned into a binding contract she didn't realize she
signed up for, with several different gods trying to procreate
with her to rule the world. Literally, there's a prophecy
in which they must find someone to procreate with in
order to take over the world, and it's kind of
like they're buying for this one queen. They call her
my Queen in hopes to be chosen by her to
(09:53):
have a baby to rule the world.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yep, and they are so cute.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
It is so cute.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So in an effort to stall and figure out what
to do, she decides to go on a date with
each of them, starting with Zabadi, who immediately sweeps her away,
like literally carries her off and flies away. On their date,
he takes her to a fancy restaurant where she can
tell that he knows a lot more about humans than
he let on, and then she expected. Turns out he
(10:21):
has dated a human before and she died somehow a long, long,
long time ago, he says, but he truly loved her
and still thought about her, including a book that the
old girlfriend called girlfriend gave him about romance.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
All of this goes.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Down with the assistance of Daniel, who has been watching
and like, kind of she's kind of like the foil
in this entire plot.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
You trust her, but you don't.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
She is a demon. She's proudly a demon, she says it.
But at the same time you can tell she kind.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Of has some good deeds or thoughts or intentions.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, yeah, so she as she's trying process she being Joanna.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
All the new information.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
She is visited by the gods at her workplace the
following day, where she was almost fired for not doing
her work in time, and she lies a lot about
this about like.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Oh I'm almost done, Oh no, I got it.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I'll like all that, And somehow she gets shrunk, like
literally as a tiny person and into a cute other
form of animation, changing the style of the art and
the way is drawn. In Joanna's web tunes, she has
a couple of chapters dedicated to Q and DA's and
she talks about her style of drawing and why she
switches this up and how much she likes it.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
So you need to go into that look that web.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So with that and with all of that kerfuffle, Joanna
is the ends up being suspended from work because not
only does she not have her work done, a lot
of disaster has been happening around the office, seemingly around her.
So Carla the boss was like, you know what, You're
just gonna be suspended, sending her into a set scrolling
spiral depression. Whena realizes her ex Jake is in town
(12:02):
and rushes with her next date of Usavia to find him,
so using Avasavia as a ruse to try to hunt
him down while also.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Pretending to be on a date with her, which is
not nice.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
She catches up to him at a coffee shop, where
he reminds her that she actually left him because she
wanted a new start in a new city that didn't
remind her of home, so she had broken his heart
and kind of forgot yea and kind of lied to
herself that he broke her heart. Awkward and realizing not
only did. She upset Jake, but she also upset Avasavia.
(12:35):
She vows to do better and make sure to go
on the best dates possible. So her next date is
(13:01):
with Zatis, who is very small and very quiet and
apparently since can sometimes stop time, rewind time, undo things.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Isn't interesting.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Trying to make it the best dage she could, she
tries her hardest to get more information out of him.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He is not interested. He is very very quiet.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
He just seemingly just sits there and stairs, which doesn't
seem to go well until Treyer comes bursting in not
looking like himself to still the date. So doing all
of these dates, they all have like a chaperone to
watch the other to make sure there's no trickery during
the process. So all the things and something happens for Trayor.
He falls asleep and comes back almost a total different person,
(13:41):
very conceited, very over the top. He takes her away
where they go dancing, watches movies and all the.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
While Zetis is very upset.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
He just didn't get his flawn, Like there's nothing else
that he seems to be upset about except for the flawn.
Soon during the whole chaos Treyer falls asleep, passes out,
and comes back looking more like himself.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Turns out he.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Has a twin with an who is an evil half
who he absorbed at one point, and he's sometimes a
twin comes out to try to take over. So like
that was the whole back and forth that no one
knew about, So there was like another.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Contestant because of this.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Joyna says she will know that was his date and
she's not giving another one, so that he has stated
is over. That's a punishment. But he tries to hide
this from the rest of the group for some reason.
And on top of that, Joyna is able to get
Zeta's some flawn, so all is good there, he smiles.
She's like perfect, I did the best date ever. When
returning home, though, we find out Maya has found her
(14:35):
date book, Joyna's date book, and Joanna finally stops lying
to her and tells her what is going on. By
the way, the relationship between the two of them is
very sweet. Turns out that Joyna was very kind to
her when Maya was at her lowest, supported her make
sure she had rent, helped her get a job, boosted
her confidence. So they're best of friends very cute. Then
(14:56):
we have Dariel who shows up and says, it's my
turn go on a date.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
So they go on a date.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
She is taken to Limbo by Dariel, although Alvos objects
because he was like, I have a date. Here we
find out what actually happens when the contract is destroyed
or if the human doesn't follow through Demon's gods, and
even the human could die. Dariel has seen this three
different times and barely survived the first time, while the
(15:22):
second time the human who was Zibadi's love the girlfriend
she actually dies in order to save the rest of them,
and so Dariel decided to bring Joanna to Limbo where
they could not be found. But soon all the other
gods come and rescue her. In part two, thanks to Mara,
who has told them what was going on during this time,
(15:44):
they could come and rescue her. Dariel gets mad because
she's like, you ruined it all. If we were in Limbo,
the ultimate, I guess God wouldn't find them and they
wouldn't be able to fulfill the death of all the gods.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So all this happened.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
They go back and forth and finally Joanna's left alone
has the phone and then throws the phone. It destroys
her phone, and then we hear maybe a clash, and
then the end. But during this whole time, we find
out a lot of the gods have fallen for Joanna
and definitely cares for Joanna and tells her to do
(16:20):
what she needs to do and they'll be okay, and
that they will save her and they will protect her
their queen. And that's how Seasoned one yans. Did I
forget anything any nothing major? I don't think nothing major,
all right, So with this we I guess we would
call these different themes. I guess it was just more
like topics within that we could address from the webtoons
(16:41):
because it's very sweet. Obviously, there's a lot in Joanna's
perspective of who she thinks she is, so it was
kind of interesting how they took what she does as
in like she lies about everything she really does. She
kind of like puts herself as a victim. As story unfolds,
we realize maybe she's not so much the victim, but
that she has let her anxieties just overtake her. So
(17:04):
the first thing with the job, like she talks about
doing all these things and trying to be good at
these things. But then we find out she doesn't turn
things in, that she doesn't uphold the requests. Apparently she
likes to talk to herself. Even before the gods came around,
the coworkers were talking about her. At that point, Carla
had given her chance after chance after chance. But at
first we thought maybe Carla was I thought.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I don't know about you. Carla was being too mean
and bullying her.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
But it kind of was like, uh, no, she's frustrated
because apparently she's given her so many chances to actually do.
Give her the updates, give her that email, give her
that article, like she's had time. And at one point
she goes through her emails to find an old article
to see if she could redo it because she knows
she didn't do her work.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So you're like, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
And then we find out that Jake is not what
she thinks, because we think that at first, like he
has truly broken her heart and she can't let it
go and he's done something. I thought maybe he was
like gonna be the villain in this whole story. Yeah,
you know, by the way he built up. And then
as you realize and he's like do you not remember
you told me to leave you alone. I'm just here
to help my family. I was willing to move with
(18:09):
you and you said no. Yeah, like, oh, Joyana, and
then her constantly lying to Maa. Whether it's about not
pretending to not be on the app, the dating app
pretending to because which is this was twenty seventeen, so
I guess, or are we still in the era of
hiding online dating?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I don't think so. But it does have the element
of she was writing about dating advice. Yeah, and we've
talked about that before, of people questioning your advice if
you are single, true or yeah, So I wonder if
there was a part of that going on there.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Maybe you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
And then also we found out like Mara did not
care and she easily believed her and so she didn't
need to even lie to her like that, and she
was doing everything because she cared about her. So we
did see that unfold in a way that not necessarily
because like, yes, Joanna is the main character, but she
has also put herself in this stress, but also in
(19:09):
that same level, like you think when you just think
that she's the worst person, maybe in the story you
have Mara's version of who Joanna is, who is the
best person, who willing to sacrifice and give up time
and help her new research, is encouraging and loving and
giving like in that same realm, So like even Joyna's
(19:31):
second version of herself, she's not seeing herself. Yeah, and
I thought that was an interesting look into her personality
as well.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, And I think the whole plot device of having
seven potentially different perspectives of Joyanna and seeing how all
these different people see her, I do think that's fascinating
because you can be at your weakest and one day
(20:00):
somebody and look really terrible, and then at your best
with somebody and really make their their day or make
them feel safe or whatever it is. And so it
was cool to see the outside perspective of Joanna. But
I also agree she's just consumed with anxiety. So she's
(20:24):
like a self saboteur. Excellent, Yeah, as a self sabotaging herself.
And so yeah, she was apparently painting this vision of
herself when it came to her past relationship with Jake,
(20:44):
when it came to her work, and she seems kind
of impulsive where she's very Oh, I don't want to
do any of these people out get this happen, and
then oh my gosh, I want it. We're gonna have
the best states ever.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
So, I think she's just got a lot of figuring
out to do with herself.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yes, she does, and she's kind of discovering herself and
what she's willing to do for her people. I do
find so she is a complex character. I do really
appreciate that level. I don't think she gets into the
backstories of the gods in the first two because I've
seen some people be like, well, she come back to this.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I feel like she's set up.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
The Webtoons so she can, so it can be enduring.
It might be a lot because even in her like
autobiographical part in the web Tunes where she answers some questions,
like she's very cagy about what inspired her about.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
This into this webtoons.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I don't know why, because she like comes back to
it and she's like, I'm not gonna talk about it
right now. Also, like her anxiety and meeting people. She
talks about how like people might not think that she's
excited because she just gets so quiet and turns bright red.
Think maybe she's stressed out and doesn't want to talk
to them, but she's actually trying to figure out how
to handle it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
She's talked about going to.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Conventions because it's this is obviously blown up in a
way that she didn't know it would blow up at
the time. So it's interesting to see her own perspective.
So obviously her and the main character may be similar
into that level, but with that not really sure if
we're gonna get that insight on the rest of the
(22:26):
gods and who they are. We kind of get like
we almost get a glimpse of like who may be
the good guy versus the bad guys, which none of
them are really bad guys, but they have a little
more of a sinister plot line in this one.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Alvos and Dariel seems to be a little more in
that lines as where you see like Zibadi and Alvosavia
really caring about her as well as Alex. Alex seems
to be all about her, who turns into a cat
for her, which is a funny scene because he also
has a film mouse.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
She's like, why do you have felt mouths like, don't
worry about it. So it's very comical, but it is.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Interesting to see that level of like depth in the
very small amount of like pages in that also this
prophecy that they have to find this is the third
attempt They've yet to be able to get this done
to rule the world obviously, but it seems like even
the gods don't know about it outside of Dariel and Zibadi,
(23:26):
that two of them are like more aware of the
consequences as the rest of them just see this as
a competition, and then it kind of hits them like,
oh wait, okay, what is this prophecy?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Who is doing this?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And why do we have such a contract that would
allow for this. It seems ridiculously over the top and
obviously very dangerous to them. So we don't know quite
that depth of that prophecy outside of that small agreement.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, we get some hints of it at the end
through Dariel most but when they're in limbo, there's like
the creepy voice and Dariel refers to her.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, as ominous her, she's here, ominous her.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, that is coming for them. I did think this
was a fun take on the you signed a contract
without really looking at the details, right, because we have
seen that I mean like a little mermaid has that.
Like a bunch of things throughout time have had that,
but in our time of dating online, I thought this
was a fun take of the well you accepted read
(24:34):
it or not, that's whoopsy, that's on you. But also
the I have to say I was taken aback when
they were like, yes, we must have children, we must
have a child. That's part of this prophecy. So yeah,
that's a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
That's a lot to just bring in and put on someone.
Maybe she doesn't want kids.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And then then she was like, wait, do you understand
procreation right like, because they're like, according to what we
see and how they're portrayed, they're both men and women.
So she's like and they're like, oh, we got it,
don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, And so I was like.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh, that's okay, that's an interesting take. And this again,
also we have the friendship portion with her and Maya.
I really liked how quietly Marria just comes through, just
like comes in. And at one point the Q and A,
they ask what is Maya's favorite color? She's like hot pink,
and she's obviously like a little bit gothed out.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, So it's very cute, but like she's willing to
go to Limbo with the gods to see where she's at.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
But although the.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Same time, Joanna is a diehard for maraa threatening them,
like if you do anything to her, she'd better be
like safe.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
All these things. I thought that was really sweet.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
And then I kind of look like there was a
friendship among the gods as well, especially when it came
to Joyna.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, which was it was cool to see they did
have sort of in group clicks. But overall I thought
it was a nice portrayal of something competitive but not
I don't know, hateful too strong a word, but like
friendly competition. There's certainly some characters want it more than
(26:19):
others for maybe the wrong reasons or like I don't know,
they just want to win, but it's not portrayed as
if they hate each other for it. They're kind of
all in this together and are thinking I'm the one
that can win this, but it's not looking down on
anybody else necessarily, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
And then of course we're all also coming in to
talk about how Joyanna has to quickly get it together
and take responsibility, and she does.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
That pretty well.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Like in the end when she kind of sits down
and assesses her job situation, her relationship with Jake, how
she's handling Mara, how.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
She's handling the gods.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Like she comes into a full swing of like, all right,
these are the things that I know I need to do.
These are the things I'm gonna face, and this is
how I'm gonna do it. She might be one of
those that needs the distraction though, because obviously each point
was because of something, if that makes sense, Like she
started the dating app because she felt like she needed
to do the next article or get into the dating
(27:39):
world so she can be seen dating and understand all
these things. The next portion of like, Okay, I need
to figure out this whole like in the world things,
so let me figure out how to distract them. And
then the next part was the job, and then trying
to save Carla it's from being tiny. And then the
next part was Jake, and then the next motivation was
apologizing to the gods like all these things. The next
(27:59):
part was like saving Mera, and then you know, it's like,
I guess we all need motivation. But like each part
of these things pushed her to grow into the next
understanding and facing the responsibility and reality of what was coming. Yeah,
so it was it was like, okay, okay, she has
to grow very quickly to try to save the world.
I guess that's the thing that happens. That's that's a
whole thing, like the slacker that has to come and
(28:22):
get it together and they end up being the one
saving the world.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yes, yes, and she has the added kind of trope
of the anxious klutzy of course a girl. But you know,
also I get why it's a trope. But you've got
seven gods who are trying to get with you. It's
(28:47):
a little boost to your ego. But she's like, you know,
at first, very much anxiety about it, but then it
kind of evolves into I like how she's trying to
She decides, I want to make it good dates for them.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, I gotta make it up to that.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, but I get why. You know, that's a fun truth.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
And the thing that's not really mentioned but it's just obvious.
It's like, yeah, she is bisexual. Like that's not like
I think I appreciated the web tunes because it wasn't
brought up, It wasn't necessarily a thing. There was no
moment of like, but you're this other than like biologically,
how we're gonna have children? Yeah, and that's kind of like,
(29:29):
oh okay, and that's the end. Like none of that
was a concern or question. It just was okay, let's go.
And I appreciate that. Nothing none of this about finding herself,
nothing about like figuring out all these things, none of
these like just what is she experimenting? Its just is
like it just is what it is, and like she
has no there's no communication like about whether or not
(29:52):
she would.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Of course, she swiped yes to.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
All of them, so like they knew obviously that they
thought she was interested, because that's why you swipe ys right?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Is that swipe right and then left is now right?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah, for most of the accounts, I think so I've
never done it.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
It's been a long time.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I've been out of the game for a long time,
so I can't quite remember. But like with that, I
thought that was I thought that was a really like understated,
big statement.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I agree, And I think that the fact that it's
not really discussed too much. But also she's not, as
you said, over sexualized, which is usually something that happens
to a bisexual character. She's really not, but like a
lot of times she's folded up in a blanket and
(30:42):
like sleeping until length two pm or whatever. And that's
not to say she doesn't have moments of like she
dresses up and looks great like, so she's not at
the reverse end of it either, right, So I liked
that too. This is so you know, as I'm saying it,
it sounds like the bare necessity.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Right, No, it just feels like this should be more common,
yeah than not. But the fact is, like it to
be as treasured as it is, as it should be,
as it is, like for those who are in the
bisexual community, feeling like, oh, this is for us, because
there's no question about this. This is no explanation in this.
(31:22):
There's no having to make excuses or reasons why or
give yourself a big story of trauma about how you
came to this point, like it just and just here
and it's just a fun fairy tale.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I don't I'm not saying.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Fairy tale because it's like you have like gods involved
in this conversation, you know, like it's a good narration
fiction that has none of that baggage.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Instead you have.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
The normalized baggage yea that everyone can understand.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
And I think a lot of the gods too, are
they play with gender norms like there were some of them.
I was like, looking, oh, yeah, actually I would have
put you more in a feminine category. Maybe that is
how the god identifies. I don't know, but they definitely
don't bring any question to that either. No, Like, this
is how, Yeah, I present myself and that's just it.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
This is who I am for this world. Except for
the fact that Dariel, who says she's a demon has horns,
actually has horns. Yeah, I'm like, oh, okay, I think
I was very pointed. But yeah, so I think that's
like the small bit to this that it's not a
big theme for them, Like it's yeah, everything else is
(32:33):
a big theme, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, And I really appreciated that thing is good.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
So yeah, there you go. What did you think about
this webtoons? Is this your first webtoons?
Speaker 1 (32:44):
This was my first webtoon? Yes, and I really enjoyed it,
you know, I love comics. Yes, and it was such
an easy read. I'm an old timer who does it
on my laptop, but it was easy enough on there
and art was really pretty and I liked the switching
up style. Else that was fun that she switched it up,
(33:04):
and it was helpful because there were a lot of characters,
so I was like, okay, let me keep jack of
who's who and who I think she's gonna end up with, right,
But no, No, it was really fun and I feel
like for something so short, she accomplished a lot right,
And also like character development wise, she accomplished a lot.
I think so too.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Did you have a favorite character, I feel like.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
There were some that I liked. I'm probably Mary.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Maria Lara Mara. I'm calling her a Mara. She was
a good character, I think because.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
She also like brings in a little bit of like
difference in the character, like because it seems like Joyne
is chaos constantly like going and marriage is like a
kind of that Daria's friend character, Yeah, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Jane? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Her name is Jane and Daria who just kind of
comes in like, yeah, what's going on? That's how I
see Mara speaking. Although I did really like Alex's character too.
He was a little bit needy, but then he was like, hey,
she gave me a name, and he wears a T
shirt and then sweatpants with his name on his butt. Hey, hey,
(34:17):
the winds wins and wins, and he was very excited
turned a cat. He's like, I will turned into a
cat for her. But I did like those two characters,
and yeah, this was mine first one, Like I said,
very interesting, Like I like this idea. I know, like
in a lot of K dramas. This is a big deal.
This is one of the biggest careers that I've seen,
like managers, webtuns, app creators, like the are producers who
(34:41):
have to go and like chase after their authors to
get like them to finish writing out which I'm wondering
if this was one of those situations.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
As well as like I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
To think of the jobs that I see the managers
also being like an idol and reporters. But webtoons is
one of the big like plot points getting people to
write web tunes and the competition end webtunes too.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I bet apparently, Well, now you've read one.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, I've read one that doesn't have an.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Ending, not yet, maybe one day, maybe one day.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
She's got a lot of projects out there if you
look at her stuff, like, she's got a lot under
her belt.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
So she's pretty busy, I'm guessing yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah. Sometimes I wonder too with people who didn't expect
to get big if you had the ending already, or
like you panic because it's never expecting someone to I
just say this as a lowly fan fiction writer sometimes
like oh, I wasn't expecting so many people to read this,
(35:47):
and now I.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Got Now you better get it together.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, I bet she had at least a loose idea.
I kind of felt like I could see where it
was going towards. Yeah, but I don't know. We'll have
to wait and see and hope it's true. Yes, do
you think she's do you?
Speaker 3 (36:06):
If they? What is your prediction on who Joanna might choose?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
So I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
I was thinking the last guy who was like Dariel Alvos. Yes,
she hasn't gone on date with me. I was thinking
him them or she get back for Jake Jake.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I'm all honestly thinking maybe mahra Oh. I would love that,
like they ended up being together.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yes, because like she has been there for they've been
there for each other, and she's so protective of her
m h.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I would be into that, so that might be her witness.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, a lot of characters.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
So anyway, all right, Well, if you readers, if you
have some web tunes recommendations.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yes, we're in, Yes, please let us know. If you
have your own predictions for what will happen in this,
please let us know those as well. You can email
us at Hello at Stuffenever Told You dot com. You
can find us on blue Sky at home stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok that stuff We've Never Told
You for us on YouTube. We have some merchandise at
(37:18):
coompuro and we have a book you can get wherever
you get your books. Thanks is always to our super
producer Tandler and our executive producer Maya. Thank you and
thanks to you for listening Stuff Never Told Us. Direction
of my Heart Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the art Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
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