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ultramarine-spirit · 2 years

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An overly emotional retrospective of WMMAP

This is completely different from what I usually post on here, so feel free to ignore my ramblings about my favorite manhwa coming to an end soon. If you choose to read this, please forgive my oversentimentality haha.

When it was announced that WMMAP was ending, I struggled to come to terms with whatever I was feeling. I was so sad that I didn’t want to even think about it anymore, but after spending over a year completely obsessed with this manhwa, it would be a little unfair of me to not reflect on it and give it a proper send-off. So that is what I’m attempting to do now.

If you asked me why I love WMMAP so much compared to other similar stories, I could give you several answers. The characters are very charismatic and lovable, and they make you deeply feel for them and what they have to go through. The narrative, while pretty simple and straight forward, is effective in what it’s trying to achieve, never stopping being entertaining and charming, and most of its themes are well done. The art, needless to say, is downright breathtaking, objectively one of the best in manhwa (and subjectively the best, in my humble opinion).

But neither of those reasons are exactly why I love WMMAP, and they don’t really explain why I’m so sad to see it end.

While I have a great deal of praise for it, WMMAP also has flaws, plenty of them in fact. Even ignoring the ways in which it parts from the novel’s narrative (if you care about that in the first place), it’s own original writing can be messy and unsatisfactory in some places. But I don’t really want to talk about WMMAP’s faults right now. I’m bringing them up because, in spite of it, I and many people love this story and characters dearly. Why is that?

After reflecting on it for quite some time, I reached something akin to an answer. WMMAP’s charm and incredible success doesn’t lay (exclusively) in it’s beautiful art, or how it was one of the precursors of the genre, inspiring countless other works, but in something more delicate and personal, that is, in how unashamedly sincere it is with the story it’s trying to tell, and how that makes the reader care deeply about it.

I’ll use Athy’s character as an example because, well, she’s my favorite (as I’m sure everyone can tell), but also because I genuinely think she is the heart of WMMAP, and that goes beyond just being the main character.

To say that Athy’s story is very sad would be an understatement. It’s heartbreaking, even more so because it was she (unlike her novel self) the one that had to go through so, so much, across multiple lifetimes. We want to see Athy find her own happiness, grasp it tightly, and never let it go, that is the main appeal of the story for most people. However, that is not really an original concept in manhwa, and even less so in other mediums. How many manhwas about a daughter trying to form a real connection with her family exist? Probably dozens, or even hundreds, and yet WMMAP is the one that is generally regarded as the best of its kind, justifiably so in my opinion.

WMMAP is way more effective in making us care so much for Athy (and the rest of the cast) because of how intimate and sincere her writing and the exploration of her feelings are. For me, more than an exciting plot full of twists and turns, what captivates me the most are the characters within a story, how they develop over time, how they interact with each other, the many conflicts that arise from those interactions, and I think that WMMAP is really successful in those regards.

The emotional impact WMMAP has on its fans is undeniable, and that is not achieved with pretty artwork alone. Athy’s journey from faking her love for Claude to caring deeply, even painfully so for him to the point of even putting him over her own safety is masterfully portrayed. You see her feelings start to shift, slowly and subtly, before she even realizes it, until the reality of them is too heavy for Athy to ignore. That unashamed sincerity made me tear up way more times than I would want to admit. And it’s because of how honest her character’s writing is that I was captivated by this story in particular.

Spoon is very earnest in her writing, that is apparent to me in the care she puts in the main cast’s characterization. She takes her time to delicately portrait Claude and Athy’s feelings and internal conflicts, and that really pays off when it comes to fleshing them out as truly well-rounded characters. While we know little to nothing about Spoon as a person, that is not really needed, as her sincerity shines through her art. Admittedly, and for better or for worse, that candidness is also reflected in the story’s faults. The story can be messy, it struggles with the landing at times and with the messages it’s trying to convey, some of the narrative’s implications (unintentional or not) directly clash with it’s main themes.

But even so, despite the sometimes clumsy writing (which is a little understandable, as far as I know this is Spoon’s first written work outside of doujins), and my own personal dislikes about certain plot elements, I think there’s a lot of value in the candor of Spoon’s story. At the core of it all, WMMAP is a story about love. Love at its most beautiful, selfless, and tender, and at its most unsightly, selfish, and cruel. That is something Spoon was able to craft with passion and care, and I appreciate it more than I can convey with clear words.

For me, WMMAP’s irreplaceable charm lays in those little moments of heartfelt emotion that Spoon excels at. In Claude softly stroking Athy’s hair as she falls asleep, in Lucas’ unshakable presence as Athy’s emotional support and confidant, in Athy’s bottomless kindness for those around her.

I’m really glad to have been here to see this story unfold.

#going to see the ocean really helped me put my feelings in order #this is somewhat rambly and personal but feel free to read it or not #also i'll just tag it as wmmap for my own blog's organization purposes #wow i really did write more than 1K words just to try to explain how i feel about wmmap lmao #tl;dr: wmmap good and i love Athy #wmmap

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