#do not read any works by hanza

[ystrike1]

I hate doing this but there's drama in the horror webtoon community and I have to vent.

Do NOT support Hanza_art

If you don't want to be spoiled/involve yourself in a toxic situation do not read further.

My Deepest Secret was infamous for its overly miserable plot twist ending. The main character turned out to be "crazy" and "delusional". Somehow that protagonist was capable of living a normal life and being a serial killer at the same time. This character never got real professional help, and they were left to suffer in their delusions.

The horror community is often wary of authors that portray mentally ill people as unsalvagable or monstrous. Personally, I was horrified.

The backlash was horrible because the plot twist made no sense in general. In addition the story was marketed as a romance and by the end nobody had paired off. I felt my time was wasted, and I was disgusted by the way the "true villain" was discarded for the crime of being mentally ill.

When Hanza returned with a more level-headed protagonist and a more violent psychopathic villain....some readers gave the author another chance.

I don't blame them. Paranoid characters like Rozy are very interesting! Especially as main characters!

Hawa, the secondary female lead, grows out of her "naive victim" stereotype as well. It's very satisfying to watch. It was tied together nicely by the handsome villain, Adam.

Adam is extremely evil and irredeemable. When the story begins he is a serial killer who targets "innocent, sweet" girls like Hawa.

Rozy is overprotective and she doesn't trust men. In fact she's a known man hater. The characters are all adults, so their character traits and desires aren't just quirks. They are all deeply flawed people.

It was a very promising start.

Plus, it wasn't marketed as a romance so I was sure it would be written better! The weakest part of My Deepest Secret was the romance (by the end I mean) so yay!

Or not...

I do not keep up with TGU on a regular basis. The plot slowed down considerably and I noticed a worrying trend. Frankly, I'm not shocked by this immature behavior in the slightest.

Every single male character in TGU is a sexist abuser who harbors violent thoughts about women.

Hanza is very good at writing scary, irredeemable, sexist pigs that belong in jail...but it was a worrying trend all the same.

Adam was a smart, handsome serial killer who liked to hide in plain sight. By about chapter fifty he was alot dumber, and I cannot stress this enough.

Every male character that associates with Rozy or Hana turns out to be a stalker or harasser. The kind that would get charged in real life.

That kind of hatred towards "all men" is worrying in a thriller comic, and it was very annoying.

I wanted Rozy to outsmart Adam.

I don't want to watch her and Hana be abused by multiple men (mostly former friends!).

I came for the girl boss mystery, and I got alot of sexism instead. What a slap in the face.

Past a certain point I was only checking in to see how bad the story had gotten....and...yup....the male police officer helping Rozy is also a weird guy.

............first of all that's boring.

Second of all it's insulting.

Hanza hates toxic romance, and it shows, and that's perfectly ok. It's not for everyone, but Hanza has built their entire career on top of sexy murder men...so their attitude is extremely hypocritical and annoying as heck to watch.

"I hate toxic romance but I'm also going to sell suit merch of Elios and Adam."

Like, what did you expect?

Hanza is an adult creator, and they do know who they're catering to.

At this point they are absolutely insulting the fans that pay their bills, and that's unacceptable.

Authors are public figures now. They have been since the Facebook Era. Random internet trolls should not influence how you speak to your fan base. I understand that working for Webtoon is brutally hard, but Hanza is a popular artist despite their fumbled first story.

It's like watching somebody blow their nose on a golden ticket.

TGU was their second chance. A very generous second chance, that got great reviews in the beginning.

I'm astonished that Hanza somehow managed to concoct another dud plot twist. Their rude attitude has to be the nail in their coffin. They should not get a third generously funded chance.

Don't interact with their posts.

Don't review bomb the webtoon.

Don't give them any more attention.

They've made more than enough money off of fans they clearly don't respect.

Every creator worth their salt knows trolls and super perverts are only 0.05% of any given Fandom.

If Hanza wants to spit on the 99.95% fine.

Just don't give them any more money or support. That's the only punishment fans have the right to inflict.

Why am I so upset?

Well, as you can see Hanza posted spoilers. They spoiler bombed Twitter because they don't want to finish TGU.

That's right. On top of insulting everybody who paid for this comic they also don't want to finish. Despite the fact that the story reached its climax recently. The girlboss alliance is finally forming against Adam but...too bad I don't wanna write it (suckers).

The sibling plot twist is just abysmal as well.

Shame on you Hanza.

You damn well know that this sibling plot twist is completely out of left field and unexpected. (and boring. I am convinced you are trolling your fans.)

The shipper trolls and the edgy Rozy/Adam fans had no idea it was coming before you randomly spoiled it.

For the record I don't ship anything in this lackluster comic, because I know better. Again, My Deepest Secret was marketed as a Romantic Thriller and then there was zero payoff. Sure, this one isn't a romance, but I don't think anyone signed up for every guy on the block being evil. Just the guy upstairs. Since the story isn't even about love I never imagined so much drama would come out. It feels very pointless and petty. Every time I hear about this artist it's a drama issue and I can't help but think they're part of the problem. Their recent behavior on social media hasn't left me with any other options.

Hanza, you are being manipulative and childish on purpose because you don't want to finish what you started.

You pandered to horror and toxic romance fans on purpose just to get money.

You spoiled a story millions of people have been reading regularly just to satisfy your childish need to bully your own fans.

You took their money.

You signed your contract.

Nobody made you do it.

If you really are super conservative and you think romance must be pure LEAVE US ALONE, and go write pure romance.

Nobody is stopping you, but you wanted to milk more money out of people you don't respect.

It's sickening, and I'm happy that TGU will never get a physical release.

You don't deserve a dime of that money.

Shame. On. You.

#yandere #male yandere #yandere male #webtoon #do not read any works by hanza #my deepest secret #the guy upstairs #anti-rec I guess

[genericpuff]

Idk if my addition will matter.

I've been following Hanza since back when they were making my deepest secret, so I've seen the development of the guy upstairs first hand and how hanza writes it. Even back in the concept stages, it was so blatantly clear that it was supposed to be a thriller/cat mouse vibe where Adam (killer) was horrible and not to be rooted for. They've compared him to irl serial killers and how those guys will often use women as shields to hide their true selves from the public and how that's messed up and bad to do.

They've shown Adam as a horrible irredeemable person and honestly there's little to no nuance with how they handle it, but that makes sense because how else can you handle an audience like what they've gotten without beating them over the head with the facts. How many ways can you outright show your main character despising and wanting to yank their best friend out of the jaws of a murderer before the audience realizes its not foreplay.

I think them going from an actual romance to a fully thriller non romantic story meant that the residual audience expected some kind of messy toxic romance, but Rozy to me has always explicitly read as Queer so idk why people aren't getting the hint.

I get their frustration and it seems like they might be shifting into a potiential issekai romance about a grandad and a middle aged woman who got reincarnated as his grandson's fiance (hard to explain but its hilarious if you want to check it out) without any thriller elements from their recent non comic posts. Whatever they do I hope they can find something to be passionate about again.

your addition VERY MUCH MATTERS actually because I don't read TGU and have very little context to the situation as a whole aside from what I've seen people talking about, which makes me reluctant to speak on it because I don't wanna go spreading misinformation in any regard. So I appreciate you taking the time to lay it all out for me, thank you!!! <3

And yeah, I've seen posts shared in the /r/webtoons sub from other blogs claiming that Hanza was being an awful person for "taking people's money" and "baiting them" into reading a dark romance story when that's very obviously not what it is? Even one excerpt that was literally like-

And I just... since when is any romance plotline that ISN'T abusive and problematic at its core (such as between a serial killer and a victim) considered "super conservative" and "pure"? It's really baffling to me how people have gone so far in the opposite direction of "purity culture" that they've started arguing on behalf of legitimately harmful and toxic relationships. It's extremely concerning especially when you know the majority of people saying this shit are between the ages of 16-21. IDK what the fuck we're doing anymore when it comes to the romance genre (and TGU isn't even a romance ffs).

Aaaand yeah in relation to where the Hanza topic came up, that's really why I'm moving away from WT as an audience and why I don't consider it a "loss" to not use WT anymore. Once upon a time I wished for Time Gate to be a contracted series, for it to have thousands of readers and be my job. But seeing what's going on with Hanza's work just informs me that I'd be dealing with a lot of the same shit - people expecting Uzuki and Mitsuhiro to be the endgame of the romance when they're literally NOT good for each other, which is the POINT. Like sure, unlike the main duo in TGU, they actually are a couple with a 'relationship' but it's not meant to be healthy and the last thing I need are 15 year olds thinking they're "couple goals". If you ship them in fanfic or w/e the fuck that's fine but please don't get mad at me when they don't wind up being the endgame couple, they're both terrible people and make each other worse when they're around each other (・_・;)

Either way yeah, I don't blame Hanza in the slightest for getting so frustrated with it all that they'd rather just be done with it. It sucks for the more loyal and sane part of their audience that the series is gonna be ripped out from under them like that, but at the end of the day if the creator is being harassed and decide they're done as a result of it... why should they have to keep putting up with bullshit just for a comic? I don't even blame Rachel if she was ending LO by choice due to the noise of the fandom, and unlike Rachel, I don't have anything in the slightest against Hanza or their work LOL But I also don't have the full picture on it all so maybe my opinion will change if I find out more about it. I just don't think any of this shit is worth directly harassing a human being over.

That said, can't get any better than someone who's read their work since before TGU, so again, thank you !

#ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything #webtoon critical

[astaldis]

Monster Attack - The White Death

@whumpers-monthly

(Picture from Gameinformer)

Fandom: The Witcher

Whumpee: Geralt of Rivia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Gen

Published: 2021-10-02; Completed: 2021-10-08; Words: 8,729; Chapters: 3/3 Summary: After Cahir has started to tell the company some of his story, there are undesirable repercussions which do not make the already sufficiently difficult crossing of the Sansmerci any easier. Neither does the weather. Nor Roach. And then there is still the Mortblanc, the White Death, lying in wait for the friends ...

Excerpt from chapter 3 of “Winterlude II”

The three companions making up the vanguard had almost reached the plateau and the source of the stream, a beautiful little waterfall mostly frozen into a cascade of icicles which fell into a small rock basin, when Geralt, with his enhanced Witcher senses, heard the sound of falling stones higher up on the mountain side. Maybe a mouflon or a mountain goat? They had not seen any animals for quite a while, actually since they had left the forest, but some cold-adapted creatures were bound to live here, too. Perhaps even a rare capricorn? Geralt scanned the rock face. However, there was nothing to be seen, just snow-covered rocks and ledges. When he turned his gaze away from the cliff again, though, he suddenly caught a movement in the corner of his eye. A bluish shape high up on the mountain, its head almost reaching into the clouds. Huge. Monstrous. It let the enormous bolder it was holding in its shovel-like hands drop.

"Ice giant! Take cover!" Geralt yelled in alarm, jumping off his horse. However, there was no cover. The avalanche set off by the boulder came straight at them with incredible speed. A blurry, unstoppable swirl of white that would swallow them all in an instant with no way to escape. And swallow them it did. Not all of the company, though. At the very last moment, Regis transformed into a bat and flew off. There was nothing he could do for his comrades.

The snow slide hit Geralt like a wall knocking the breath out of him. He heard Angoulême's muffled shrieks through the masses of snow that carried him off across the ravine threatening to bury him alive. Instinctively he tried to make swimming motions to stay on the surface but to no avail, the moving snow was too powerful. When it finally came to a halt, Geralt was covered by a thick, heavy layer of the icy substance, battered, not able to move, hardly able to breathe. Was this how it would end? The tragic story of Geralt of Rivia and his hanza's ill-fated journey to rescue his child surprise. Entombed in a frozen, lonely, forgotten grave - Mortblanc, the White Death, a fitting name indeed ...

Read the story on Ao3:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/34224823

#whumpers-monthly #issue no 18 #monster attack #the hansa #the hanza #geralt of rivia #emiel regis #milva #cahir #cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach #angoulême #maria barring #geralt whump

[violetarks]

got asked to give webtoon recs by @uselessbeanies so here we are:

*and these are all personal opinions about ratings!! i do highly suggest reading the warnings before every chapter, i would not like to spoil any of these series for you, but please be cautious!! all of this is written on the 7th of September 2021

updated: 29th of July 2022

'My Deepest Secret' by Hanza Art is about a sweet college student named Emma who's boyfriend, Elios, is a charming and handsome guy who works with her at a coffee shop. She's head over heels for him, so much so that she doesn't realise a hidden truth in their relationship.

Genre: Thriller, Romance

Current Status: Completed

Episodes: 101

Rating: 10/10, this was my first and it's amazing!! i like the twists and turns Emma goes through within the story. the way she reacts to certain things, what elios says and how other characters talk about gives great and subtle hints!! its incredible and it only gets better!!

'School Bus Graveyard' by lilreadbeany follows Ashlyn, who is deemed a loner in high school. She visits a haunted house on a school trip with her classmates that turns their world for the worse, allowing them to see horrifying monsters at night. The only way to survive is to connect with her classmates and fight it out.

Genre: Thriller, Romance

Current Status: Ongoing, updates every Wednesday

Episodes: 47

Rating: 9/10, the art style is very nice and the details among the scenes are both anxiety-inducing and intriguing. all the main characters are so likeable in their own ways, and it's hard not to love what the author does with their interactions. it is coming to a season finale soon, but i am really excited to read what happens next!!

'Homesick' by Ms. Freaky is a story about Rayne, a girl whose lost her memories and has woken up in an apocolypse. She immediately meets Samael, a guy who acts pretty much like that kid who was the mean 'good' guy of your high school class. They strike a deal to try and help each other survive in the world of cannibalistic monsters.

Genre: Thriller, Supernatural

Current Status: On Hiatus (Season Finale)

Episodes: 48

Rating: 9/10, the various colouring is what caught my eye, because of the ones chosen and how they work together. the artstyle is very pleasing and i could stare for hours!! character are very well-written and you cant help but feel for them, even the ones who shouldnt be taken well, and the interactions between Rayne, Ogre, Samael and other characters are just amazing!!

'Maybe Meant to Be ' is a webtoon by both honeyskein (writer) and damcho (artist) involving two polar opposites; unemployed and unmotivated Jia Han, and serious and stoic Mincheol Jin. After joking that the two of them should get married to each other to relieve parental stress, Jia finds out that Mincheol had taken her offer seriously and drags her into a faux marriage used to keep their mothers and fathers satisfied.

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Current Status: Ongoing (updates every Friday)

Episodes: 11

Rating: 9/10, I LOVE THEM BOTH!! in romance, i usually find myself liking one love interest more than another (except for love is war, ofc), but for mmtb, both of them are just so loveable!! the comedy hits so well and the artstyle helps to tie it all together. guaranteed that any romance lover will absolutely fall for this webtoon, highly recommend this one for a nice read!!

'My Giant Nerd Boyfriend ' by fishball is a series filled like all short comics. It dives into the life of the author herself and her boyfriend, iconic by his pikachu shirt. The highs and lows of their relationship, the funny and relatable moments, and even the strangest times fill this webtoon to the brim!

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life

Current Status: Ongoing (updates every Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

Episodes: 745

Rating: 8/10, so many episodes to enjoy, you can never run out. the artstyle is so cute and makes everything way more funnier!! fishball and boyfriend are hilarious to watch and the plot of every mini comic always makes me chuckle. i find that this series is nice to pass time!!

'Nice To Meet You' by Wishroomness tells the tale about a clumsy college student named Mew, who finds a lost student card and decides to not do the responsible thing and give it back. She plays a tiny game on the cardholder, in which said holder named Daze doesn't take lightly to the prank. Perhaps Mew made a mistake, or the best decision ever for her life. Their relationship unfolds as the game spirals out of any of their control.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Current Status: Ongoing (updates every Monday)

Episodes: 48

Rating: 8/10, beautiful artstyle and colouring!! i was drawn to that first and then fell in love with the characters, each of them has their flaws that effect the story in different ways, but isn't a big block that it makes you aant to quit reading. great to show a more realistic side.

'Once A Hero' by Yankifull is Ja-in's story that starts off with his kidnapping, where he is saved by a conveniently placed guy named Unjo. His questions about this stranger only grow more after hearing Unjo say that he had saved a nation in his 'past life'. Ja-in's life spirals out from that point on.

Genre: Fantasy, Action

Current Status: Ongoing (updates every Monday)

Episodes: 7

Rating: 7/10, really enjoying it so far, the artsyle is very nice and the characteristics of each person in this story is very interesting, meeting new characters is always refreshing too!! like the breaking of 'fan favourite' characters and the powers are very interesting.

#violet recommends #webtoon #webtoon recommendation

[itsclydebitches]

I got witcher!Ciri too! I kind wonder wha would happen if she died tho, dont wanna put geralt or her through that but I love angst lmfaoo. The game got really confusing at point cause I you have to learn a bunch of politics and how this world works and I didnt pay that much attention so I'm sure I'll get those moments in my second playthrough too I'm playing something in the hearts of stone thnig, it was lower level so I'm assuming you should play that first? a main quest with the asshole ghost in the wedding and wow I fucking hate it, it's so umcomfortable to watch geralt be this gross n weird lol, I'm not too familar when Shani either so watching her get mad when I get geralt to say he wouldnt do what the ghost is doing is so annoying lol, OH AND the ghost is a creepy fuck! shani babe you can do much much better than an asshole who talks about his dick and fucking "maidens" every other sentence!! Geralt really does get thrown into so much shit huh I'm tempted to read the books cause I do rly like the world and most- some characters but yeah reading about yen being yen wold be one of the things to stop me, what are some of the plot points that put you off? if you don't mind sharing And yeah I'd so be up for more content esp with ciri, would be cool to see them work together, even with how combat works in this game with npcs lmao

Woo witcher Ciri ending! :D If you enjoy putting yourself through pain I recommend looking up that other ending on YouTube because there are definitely some nice angst shots in the cut scenes. I watched and then promptly went, “I don’t need to play that for myself” lol. But yeah, hard agree on things getting confusing, especially towards the end. I completely missed stuff like the fact that my actions would actually impact this war, rather than the war simply being backdrop, or that Ciri’s powers were more than just the ability to teleport short distances. So by the time I was getting called on to murder kings and Avallach was taking us to totally different worlds, I had a very John Mulaney approach of, “This might as well happen. Things are already so goddamn weird.” Which, you know, really isn't the game's fault. It's what I get for jumping into the third game first and while I don't regret that at all, the story has absolutely deserved a second playthrough where I actually understand all the basic stuff I should have known going in.

Yeah, Hearts of Stone comes first. You can do any of the side quests you’d like from either DLC, but I’d recommend keeping Blood & Wine’s main storyline for the final push. But yeah, that ghost dude is, uh… something. I quite like the wedding on the whole—I really enjoy Shani, dancing is fun, O’Dimm is being a wonderfully evil dude—but yeah, dead dude is definitely a creep. Which is partly one of the things that turned me off from the books. It has the same ‘Guy trying to write women’ energy of the games but… worse. I’ve read a lot of excerpts over the years and so many of them turn me off. There are a ton of small things, like Triss importantly informing the witchers (who are all like 100+ years old??) about periods and that Ciri can’t train today because of hers (a moment that much of the fandom celebrates as... progressive?), or Triss and Yen getting super catty with one another over Geralt, to much bigger things like Ciri nearly getting raped/being involved in intimate acts with really questionable consent. A lot of the Witcher has a “This didn’t age well” vibe to it which, to be fair, isn’t entirely the fault of the author. The story is the product of 90’s Polish culture and, again, a man trying to write some pretty complex subjects from an arguably ignorant place, which makes much of the work eye-rolling for me at best, outright uncomfortable at worst. (Which I think is why I enjoy the games far more. I have agency in this questionable world, the ability to tailor it somewhat to my own beliefs and desires, which makes moments when that's taken away, like Geralt automatically commenting on how good Yen looks at a funeral, all the more frustrating). I obviously am not a Geralt/Yen fan, which sours a great deal of the plot. From what I got through the pacing felt like a slog and, more importantly, much seems to have been lost in the translation from Polish to English. (I continually hear about how amazing the dialogue is, but sadly that hasn’t come across in translation for me. Much of it is... awkward.) The parts I’ve heard about/read excerpts of that I’m most interested in—Geralt’s hanza—ends tragically and I’m… just not here for that right now. Which isn’t to say it’s badly written or anything, just that it’s not my personal cup of tea, especially nowadays with a pandemic and what all going on lol. I look at what I know of the series as a whole and go, “Do I really want to read five books filled with outdated representation for women, that old-school fantasy violence that turned me off GoT, with a super depressing ending, all wrapped up in an iffy translation and a style I don’t think does well in long-form storytelling? … Not really.”

Still loved most of the short stories and I’ve heard that many people liked the audio book versions when they couldn't get into the text, so I might give that a go someday. I’d prefer to actually have read all the source material for a fandom I’m spending so much time in, but I sadly just haven't had the urge yet. If you do read them, anon, you’ll have to tell me what you think. It’s becoming quite the divisive topic, especially as Netflix fans turn to the books, and—putting aside that everyone’s tastes will always differ—it’s interesting to hear not just whether someone had fallen in love with the books or not, but if they haven’t what about them prevented that. It's very much a case of one person's "That was awful" being another's "Are you kidding me? That's the best part!"

#witcher #mymetas