#this is my design for Hyde based on the book | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

Tumblr posted its first advertisements in May 2012 and subsequently earned $13M in revenue.

#this is my design for Hyde based on the book

nightsmudge · 6 months

Text

For this class assignment we had to draw designs for Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde based on their book descriptions

Apparently modern media has led people to usually think of Hyde as this giant monstrous brute in a black cloak even though in the book he's described as a crude, chaotic, and primitive little guy. Meanwhile Jekyll is a tall, well-off, charismatic, middle aged man; essentially the ideal image for 18th century men.

It was pretty fun designing Hyde as this crazed short guy that I decided to depict as almost ape-like as well as experimenting with more shape-based designs that are pretty far out of my comfort zone when it comes to my usual style

#dr jekyll and mr hyde #jekyll and hyde #henry jekyll #edward hyde #charcter design #character concept #art class

38 notes · View notes

geartime-again · 7 months

Text

Jekyll & Hyde Diorama

To celebrate the release of The Glass Scientists Volume 1 by @arythusa I finished a hidden diorama for my room.

Here it is as a whole. The base, frame, and staircase are pieces I reused from a mock-up scale model stage set for Jekyll & Hyde: The Gothic Musical Thriller that I could have done better if it hadn't been a school project.

More pictures and info below.

The door on the left was based on the scale of the original stage set, so let's just say it leads to a rather small storage space. A lot of the props are hand made except for the clock, microscope, lantern, and ink pen set on the desk. Regarding the exposed cardboard in the upper right corner, I accidentally glued the back wall upside down and I want to know if anyone thinks I should paint it to look like exposed stone or something.

For these silhouettes at the top, the left side is various Jekylls, while the right is Hydes. Starting from the middle are designs I quickly sketched out to represent the original book. Second we have the designs from the MazM mobile game adaptation. Third is The Glass Scientists. And last but not least is designs from the amazing S. K. Michels' animatics using songs from the musical.

Here's the file I made and traced so it's easier to see

I'll share more images and info later with closeups of the desk and table, where I'll also point out 4 special details/props that correlate with each Jekyll & Hyde paring.

#jekyll and hyde #henry jekyll #edward hyde #the glass scientists #musical #mazm jekyll and hyde #So excited to have finished this

32 notes · View notes

mawita · 10 months

Text

I KEEP FORGETTING TO POST THESE BOYS

JEKYLL AND HYDE PONIES, AND YES, LORE EXISTS

Hyde on his own, and basically just a blog post with thoughts and process notes under the cut!

Personal Notes

Exams have been killing me, and i am, finally done!! Wooo!! Yeah, time for a break year, i hope I'll have more time for art :))

Anyways yeah, silly Jekyll and Hyde ponies, this is my biggest fixation here over the last year, its killing me, could genuinely turn into a special interest at this rate.

anyways, these two came about out of a want to illustrate book Jekyll and Hyde, but humans just, hurting me to draw atm, so ponies instead.

Design Notes

Shape! I wanted Jekyll to feel Big and Bombastic, fat Jekyll rights (although, I admit, I don't think I made him fat enough here, I'll out more effort into that in later pieces/sketches. I hope to develop their shape specifically a lot.) In contrast, of course as described in the book, Hyde is smaller, younger, and sharper. I gave him the teeth from the 1931 movie, cuz that's honestly the only part of that design I like apart from the flesh that starts to melt at the end of the movie (cough cough, racist charicature)

Colors! Admittedly a bunch of this was simply done because i thought it looked good. Jekyll feels inherently blue to me, and Hyde being toxic green just felt appropriate. But also, having them purely be cold would not be the most balanced pallete. I wanted to give them both warmth. Jekylls warmth comes from his Vest and Cravat, clothes he dons as an expression of his class and social standing. He cares a lot about his position in the upper crusts of London's society, and plays into his role with care. The colors on him that stand out the most, his warmth and his sociability, is performative in its expression. Hyde's only warmth is in his yellow-red eyes, from living an (exaggerated) version of his authentic self.

Cutie Mark! Potion bubbles mmmmmm :)). Important note tho! The cutie Mark DOES NOT CHANGE between the forms! Hyde is Jekyll! A truly fucked up Jekyll, a Jekyll most likely under the influence (in this au canon: definitely under an influence)

Also fun fact! These pony designs are based on my pony town designs of Jekyll and Hyde :3

Anyways yeah, when I've settled into my new apartment I'd like to explore these two buggers a bit more. Strangely enough, I believe the my little pony friendship is magic universe has some deep implications for the Jekyll and Hyde story, that I am very grasped by.

That ends it for this post, if you got this far, thank you for indulging me!!

#Also reminder: Jekyll does NOT have DID #Hyde does NOT represent OCD or Intrusive thoughts #Le Testamente du Docteur Cordelier is one of the greatest adaptations ever #Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde is hilarious and I love it #Aaaaaaaaaand hit send #Jekyll and Hyde #Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde #Jekyll #Hyde #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #my little pony #mlp #oc #oc art

46 notes · View notes

vickyvicarious · 18 days

Note

If you wanted to read a comparative literature meta between Dracula and another novel, which one would you choose?

Ooh... This is a really interesting ask. First of all, it's not if - I definitely would want to read that! The only difficulty is in narrowing down the candidates. It's hard to choose, honestly. Ideally it would be nice to compare a novel that explores some of the same themes but in a different way.

The Beetle is also a horror novel that has the fear of foreigners/the other as typified by a supernatural entity arriving in London. It also has multiple narrators as well, who all have to hunt down their fleeing foe on a train in order to save the main woman in the cast. But it doesn't really delve much into old vs. new for example, and it is just... so bad. Every character is worse, the writing is worse, comparing these two books is all the way through just a case of ragging on Marsh's work for being worse, honestly. Ideally for me, both books in such a meta would be good.

Varney the Vampire, Carmilla, and The Vampyre are all classic vampire stories, and it's interesting to compare them to Dracula when you think about what kinds of influences Stoker may have taken from them. But they don't share the same themes as much outside of that. Varney is a penny dreadful and outside of superficial aspects of some scenes/character roles I don't see tons of resemblance to Stoker's work; it's written as a sprawling dramatic tale designed to keep entertaining casual readers over time, unlike the still large yet self-contained and more intense in tone novel by Stoker. (Admittedly, I'm less than halfway through Varney so that's what my opinion is based on. I do find the treatment of Flora as a victim of a vampire to be an interesting point of comparison to the way Mina and Lucy were treated.) And the other two are both much shorter and more constrained to their horror story. They don't have as big of a cast and they don't have as prolonged fights against their vampires, either.

Other classic 'gothic fiction' such as The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have their own merits as well. Phantom has a similar path in adaptations making the main antagonist into a troubled romantic hero. But that's more about adaptations than the novels themselves, which don't have as much in common as others on this list. Dorian Gray could be a good comparison as far as homosexual subtext (or really, just text in DG) and if one wanted to discuss the idea of nonaging beings. But while Dracula doesn't age and doesn't really grow/change and there are some potentially interesting discussions to be had there, that's more a case of those two characters rather than the two novels as a whole. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is presented as more of a detective story, which is both true to, and an aspect of Dracula that doesn't usually get as much attention as it should. So that could be fun. There's also an interesting thread with Jekyll's experimentation as a 'new manmade' horror vs. Dracula's 'old supernatural' horror, and potential contrast between that very homegrown versus foreign danger, and even the idea of an alternate self being released. But the Bloofer Lady and Mr. Hyde, for example, are very different cases in many ways. And there's again a much smaller cast and scale to the story, so there are a lot more pieces of Dracula that don't have as much of an equivalent to compare. (That too could of course be interesting to contrast, but it's a different sort of meta more focused on the novel's role in the genre for example, than the closer comparison your ask makes me envision.) Honestly, with its themes of culpability/respectability, I see it comparing more easily to Dorian Gray than Dracula.

The Woman In White would actually be quite an interesting comparison, even though it's not really in the same genre. It's not a supernatural horror, however much it flirts with dramatic gothic imagery especially at the beginning. But it does have a bunch of other stuff in common. The villainous foreign Count is an obvious one, but specifically Dracula and Fosco's attraction to certain individuals and like of breaking them is another link. Both have intelligent heroes who are quite methodical about their approaches. Jonathan and Laura's experiences have quite interesting similarities (as well as, to an extent, Lucy and Anne, not just to one another but to the aforementioned characters as well), especially in the contrasting ways they are treated later in the novels. The use of female characters in general has some really discussable similarities and differences (Mina vs. Marian as well as in general). Mr. Fairlie and Mrs. Westenra fill a similar role. Both books are epistolary, with a heavy focus on the characters themselves gathering documents with different perspectives of events to help them figure things out (that detective aspect). Trains and timetables are important in both in a way, and though Dracula is more intentional about the contrast of modern/ancient there is a potential thread to be discussed there. In general, they both get weird about foreigners in ways that could also be talked about at length, specifically in regard to the villains vs. the heroes and how nationality and perceived nationality/stereotypes play into their respective roles. The idea of madness vs. sanity is also a theme in both, and both have characters with differing degrees of memory loss and inability to talk about their experiences. If we're looking for an overall comparison of both novels as a whole, as well as multiple different points of connection/comparison, I think this may be the best one so far.

Of course, this is all just thinking of more contemporary works to Dracula. It's also a list influenced by what I've been reading and thinking about more for the past year, so there are probably other books I'll think of later. But for now, that's my long and rambly answer!

#dracula daily #books #dracula meta #not really meta itself so much as discussion of possible meta to be had but hey close enough #this was a great ask lots of fun to think about #i thought of other books too but in terms of both what's in the novel and the role it plays in 'classic fiction' these were the biggest one #that have occurred to me so far at least #replies #anonymous

10 notes · View notes

henrysglock · 8 months

Note

Now then let me make you insane…. Just a bit.

Ok so I guess I’m an aspiring gymnast now cause this is a Stretch!

But a couple of months ago I found out that the cards on Mike’s bulletin board are garbage pail kids cards, one of which is called Evil Eddie.

And I just went back to that post and thought “hmm, what if there’s something about Edward Creel?”

So, as the insane person that I am, I googled garbage pail kids cards that have the name “Henry” in it first and then “Edward” instead of just Eddie.

And well….

One thing I learned about garbag pail kids cards is that one image can have multiple (i think it’s always two) different names….

(definitely a reference to Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde)

And I can imagine that they probably had to buy these cards in a bundle? Like, I don’t think they just bought four cards for the set design/prop department lmao. And all the cards that they put up in Mike’s room (that we can see) also have the same names as other characters from the show so mayyyyybee….. maybe we’ll see these two cards in s5?👀

But yeah idk, again, kinda in my gymnast era🤸

OUAGHFHGFJHGJFHG!!!! I'M NORMAL!!!!! sorry this took me so long to get to 😭

I totally agree that "halved" Henry and “evil" Edward are based on Jekyll and Hyde, much like Henry and Edward Creel seem to be, given that the book covers and stage performance/advertisments for J+H seem to be direct inspirations for the TFS promo art:

(image courtesy of Em's Jungian Shadow post)

and it’s so funny to me, how we’ve essentially determined that Eddie Munson delivers subtext/foreshadowing for Edward Creel, and then Mike has the Eddie/demobat version on his board, like you said:

He’s not the evil Eddie were looking for, but he hints at him given the double-persona thing.

In any case, I’m totally normal about it!! Great catch!!

#edward creel #timeline theory #stranger things #st set design

19 notes · View notes

about-faces · 2 years

Note

So which Twoface scarred design do you like based on anesthetics the most? And any theories about the variety of colors, like do any play into color theory or any meaning, or are just limited to printed color limitations/artist sole interpretation?

This would have been a much shorter answer if you hadn’t added the second part. But I’m glad you did, because I love talking about this shit!

While I do have certain… shall we say, opinionated preferences for my ideal design for the scarring, my taste is dependent on SO many different factors. Since you brought up color limitations, let’s start there, because that speaks to a certain aesthetic of Two-Face that I love.

First, let’s talk about the basic design, the gold standard of the Golden Age. The very first appearance of Two-Face has served as the model for how the scarring's looked ever since. The iconic features include a permanent snarl, a bulging eye, a wilder hairstyle with differently colored hair, and different coloring from his unscarred flesh. Every version of Two-Face since has either followed or subverted this original depiction.

(Note: I could also go on a whole tangent about how this design MAY have been based on a poster for the 1941 film adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I’ve recently had reason to suspect may be bogus for reasons related to the complicated history of Batman’s supposed “creator” Bob Kane, but that’s several other essays worth a material. And that’s not even taking into account who actually drew this original comic, whether it was the credited Kane, or Jerry Robinson and/or George Roussos. The history of Golden Age comics is rife with controversy, plagiarism, and bullshit, with Batman being no exception.)

For roughly 50 years, this was, more or less, the standard version of Two-Face. Even as DC evolved through different eras of “House Styles” where all art had to maintain a certain consistency, this design underwent very little variation over five decades. While his scarring would occasionally be depicted as gray or off-purple or even flesh toned, it usually stuck to the original choice of green.

Why green? Why would a man who suffered an acid attack have green scarring? Putting aside questions of realism (which have little place in the world of comics), the reasoning was tied to those specific issues you raised about printed color limitations. The history of comic book coloring is absolutely fascinating, when companies had to rely on printers to produce the cheapest possible product on a regular deadline.

These printers (supposedly backed by organized crime) published comics on newsprint with the four-color CYMK color model, and comic artists had to work within these limitations. This led to some interesting color-coding for heroes and villains in superhero books, with the heroes depicted in primary colors like red, yellow, and blue, and the villains being depicted in secondary colors like orange, purple, and green. As you’ll note, Harvey’s design uses all three of those secondary colors, appropriately enough for a man obsessed with twos.

To this day, these colors are what are used for classic, “retro” depictions of Two-Face, which you can still see on merchandise today. As such, I have great affection for this basic design with these colors, especially when they appear on newsprint with the visible newsprint dots.Over the past couple decades, we’ve seen comics companies reprint these classic stories with cleaned-up, “remastered” artwork. As time has gone by, I’ve come to dislike this treatment of older comics, which were specifically drawn for a period where coloring and printing options were strictly limited. Removing those limitations with computer coloring only seems to make the linework appear more dated, at least to my eye.

For example, take one of my personal favorites, the third chapter of “A Lonely Place of Dying.” On the left is the current, cleaned-up version, while the other is a scan from a long-defunct tumblr user jthener-comics-vault who emphasized the newsprint dots and yellowed newspaper.

Some may prefer the version on the left, but I strongly prefer the version on the right. There’s just so much more aesthetic appeal with the second version to my eye. The version on the right looks dated, while the version on the left looks timeless because of how it embraced a certain retro aesthetic. Your mileage may vary, but that’s where I’m at with my taste preferences.

(See also: the recent revival of interest in CRT TV screens with classic video games, discussed in this popular post about how games were designed for the limitations of older TVs, and how current pixel graphics don’t look right in comparison. Given how there’s now a whole Reddit community dedicated to CRT TV pixel graphics, I’d love to see people embrace classic comics in the same way. But alas, the people who care about such things are literally a dying breed, as most comics fans seemingly don’t have much interest in anything beyond the past decade or so.)

So if you’re talking purely aesthetics within the classic limitations of comics, I consider the version on the left to be my platonic ideal for a perfect Two-Face. It’s not because the linework of the scarring is anything special (as much as I worship the late, great Jim Aparo, his Two-Face scarring looks like Harvey dipped himself into some creamed spinach), but because the scarring fits the overall aesthetic of the printing techniques of a bygone era.

So that would be ONE example of my preferred take on the scarring, with a specific version that emphasizes his classic newsprint roots. But it’s not the only one, because those limitations were soon expanded by the 1990’s, with advances in printing quality and coloring techniques. On top of that, DC started hiring artists for stories far outside their usual “House Style,” which led to all manner of weird and varied interpretations of characters like Two-Face, depending on the story. In fact, his appearance–along with his personality, motivations, and even his own backstory–would change drastically from one appearance to the next. His scarring alone could be green, pink, red, blue, purple, or some variation of the above! And that’s not even taking into account the pen-and-ink linework choices!

This finally brings me to your original question of which version of the scarring I prefer. While I still love the classic retro take on the character as well as stylized “dark deco” versions like his appearance in Batman: The Animated Series, there are certain traits I look for in modern depictions of Two-Face. These preferences were undoubtedly informed by the fact that I saw Sam Raimi’s Darkman as a young teen and fell in love with the prosthetic makeup effects by Chet Zar and Toni Gardner, who created a viscerally horrifying template for what I wanted to see used for Harvey Dent ever since.

So these days, when it comes to what I really want to see in the scarring? At this risk of being too graphic, I like the flesh to be stretched and warped, the lips and eyelids peeled back and exposed. I also STRONGLY prefer there be no clear line down the middle between the scarred and unscarred sides. There should be some sense of integration between the sides, rather than two separate faces–one realistic and one cartoonish–slapped together. Some of my favorite examples include Alex Ross and Doug Braithwhaite’s Harvey cameo from Justice #2 and Brad Walker and Doug Hennessey’s from “Ugly Heart.”

Basically, I prefer a style that’s evocative of movie-style body horror, adding realism without being realistic.He should appear shocking while simultaneously looking like someone who has suffered, and continues to do so. It should compliment (but NOT play up) the good/evil dichotomy, without veering into cartoonishness. Doing that leads to him being treated as more of a gimmick crook rather than a three-dimensional character.

Again, we’re talking my own personal preference here. As a character, Two-Face represents different things to different people. When creating the story Batman: Faces, artist Matt Wagner wanted Harvey’s scarring to be red because it emphasized the “devil inside” motif. For many people, Two-Face is a character who conveys the evil within normalcy. Fair enough.

But for me, I like red because it looks like exposed flesh and tissue, emphasizing the raw pain Harvey has and must endure. I prefer when the scarring emphasizes tones of flesh and blood, like reds, pinks, and purples. I loved the blue scarring of Batman: The Animated Series on its own merits, but it only works within that specifically stylized “dark deco” context.

And when it comes purely to linework design, I think my ideal model would be the work of sculptor Andy Bergholtz, who not only designed a bust I will never afford despite dearly wanting, but who also created an incredible pumpkin carving of Two-Face which, weirdly enough, endures as one of my favorite depictions of the character.

Notice how Bergholtz doesn’t draw a distinct line between the two sides, but instead shows how the flesh stretches and warps from one side to the next. It looks painful, while also being perfectly integrated with the rest of the head. Hell, even the choice to go with the classic green coloring works, because of how it looks sickly and gangrenous! It still looks fleshy, even with the comic-book-y coloring choice!

These sculptures are my baseline for how Harvey’s scarring should ideally look. But at the end of the day, the scarring is only one factor I look for when it comes to depictions of Two-Face. It’s how the scarring looks with his unscarred side, especially if the artist actually chooses to DO something interesting with Harvey’s face rather than just depict him as a Bland White Dude or Generic Gangster. It’s also how both sides of his face look in whatever he’s wearing, how they’re drawn in the linework, how they’re colored and depicted on paper and/or online scans. So many factors go into making/breaking Two-Face, just as they do with pretty much every other comic character who has existed for decades at this point.

But ultimately, none of that matters to me as much as the writing. Harvey could look absolutely terrible in the artwork, and I wouldn’t care so long as the writing treats him with empathy and compassion. Still, I appreciate you giving me this opportunity to reacquaint myself with his aesthetics, which I’ve too long disregarded because–for many–that’s all they see when they think about Two-Face. Not as a three-dimensional character, but as a walking pile of aesthetics. But it's nice to revisit those aesthetics as a reminder of why he's continued to endure as an iconic character for eight decades.

#harvey dent #twoface #two face #ask hefner #long post #what the hell are those links under my images now #why does copy pasting a draft from google docs do that now?#that didn't used to happen last year

65 notes · View notes

dowhatteverer · 1 year

Text

Designing more villains from RWBY, here's my take on Arthur Watts with his Allusion changed.

The one on the right is if he were doctor Frankenstein, and the one on the left is if her were Mr. Hyde. (Frankenstein is based on cultural osmosis, while Mr. Hyde is more similar to the book)

And here's a finalized design that combines them together because I showed this to some family members and they said they liked Frankenstein Watt's hair and heterochromia without the hat.

#rwde #arthur watts

25 notes · View notes

punchdrunkdoc · 2 years

Text

Updated K-drama list (9)

Wow, its been a WHILE since I’ve done one of these! I haven’t watched as many new shows as I’d have liked in the past couple of years (my watchlist is out of control!) but I thought it was time to add them here. Its mostly for my benefit, so I can keep track of what I’ve seen, but if you’re looking for recommendation or you’re a newby to Kdramas wondering where to start, I hope this helps!

The GREAT (i.e. my top 21 - I couldn’t narrow it down to an even 20!)

1. Its Ok To Not Be Okay

A children’s author with antisocial personality disorder becomes obsessed with a handsome (but closed-off) carer in a mental health hospital.

I could (and already have) written loads about this show - it became my all-encompassing obsession for the 8 weeks it was on telly. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! I had a feeling only 1 episode in that it might become my all-time favourite K-drama, and I was right. The quality never dropped for a moment, and it absolutely nailed the ending.

I pretty much love everything about it - the whimsical, fairytale-esque tone, the music, the costumes, the supporting characters, the side-plots exploring different mental health issues, the humour, the set design, even the opening credits!

The two leads are so beautiful with SO MUCH chemistry that you could watch them read a phone book and it would be hot. But it became a real three-hander of a show, with the male lead’s autistic brother forming an integral part of the relationship dynamic.

Honestly, I can’t do this show justice with such a short review - just WATCH IT!!

Male lead: Soooo handsome, quiet and compassionate but with a steel core; it’s so fun watching him come out of his shell. Actor also seen in (AASI): My Love from a Star (honestly, he didn’t make much of an impression in that show, but he was amazing in this - he conveys so much emotion with the most subtle facial movements)

Female lead: Absolutely fascinating; so wounded and vulnerable, but projecting this awesome, no-fucks-given, blunt-as-hell exterior. Actress also seen in (AASI): Lawless Lawyer, Hwarang (minor character)

2. Crash Landing on You

He’s from North Korea. She’s from South Korea. They never should have met, but they’ll change each other’s lives.

This was my first K-drama, and although it’s been knocked off the top spot, it’s still fantastic. Its the full package - the entire cast of characters is great, the lead romance is ANGSTALICIOUS and its genuinely, laugh out loud funny (when its not making you cry or swoon). I’ve since discovered that they had a North Korean defector as a consultant working on the show, so apparently the NK scenes are fairly accurate which is SUPER interesting.

Male lead: Officially the best boyfriend ever - absolutely nails the small, romantic gestures. AASI: Hyde, Jekyll & Me.

Female lead: Smart, sassy, and funny. I love her.

3. Red sleeve - NEW ENTRY

A court romance between the leader of Joseon - who believes his duty is to his country first above love - and a headstrong court lady who wants to protect the life she has chosen

This is, without doubt, the best historical Kdrama I’ve ever seen. Sorry, Love in the Moonlight, you’ve been kicked out of the top 10!

The whole thing is beautifully made, from the gorgeous music and cinematography, to the fully realised characters, to the slow-burn pace of the heart-wrenchingly beautiful, bittersweet love story. Speaking of the which, I didn’t realise when I started the show that it was based on a true story. I ended up googling the ending, and I’m glad I did, because it helped prepare me for the last episode (top tip: If you want a happy ending I’d advise skipping that episode; but if you enjoy crying for 90mins straight, watch it). The two leads of the show are phenomenal - especially Lee Jun-Ho. He will tear your heart out.

Male lead - Has the weight of the world on his shoulders. You really feel it when he becomes torn between his duty and his heart. A brilliant performance. AASI: Just between lovers.

Female lead: Funny and clever with a core of steel. You can absolutely see how she steals the King’s heart.

4. W - Two worlds

A surgeon gets sucked into the world of her father’s webtoon when the main character’s life is threatened.

This was a WILD ride! The first 4 episodes barrelled through plot at an amazing rate and certain events happen in episode 5 that had me wondering how the show could even continue! But it did…and the plot just got more insane! I loved this show SO much. It kept me guessing, had me on the edge of my seat, and even had room for some of my favourite romance tropes. The central relationship was great, and (because of the insane plot) you basically get 2 love stories for the price of 1. It keeps creeping up my rankings because its a show I come back to again and again.

Male lead: Just a really, really cool guy. Can’t think of how else to describe him! Always in control, calm, unflappable, analysing the situation….but he can break out the cocky charm when needed. AASI: While you were sleeping, Doctor Stranger

Female lead: I really liked her - she had more agency than a lot of other female heroines and I really related to her freaked-out panic in the beginning when she didn’t feel like she was a capable enough doctor to save a life.

5. Itaewon Class

A young man’s life is forever altered when he runs afoul of a powerful family.

This felt like a big step up in quality from everything else in this list, in terms of the production, soundtrack (which was brilliant), the lack of twee sound effects, and just the overall ‘real world’ feel of the show. All of the characters were fleshed out and 3-dimensional, and they all had their ‘moment’ to shine. The story itself was gripping and so well done - some of the twists and reveals had me gasping! And what can I say about the 2 leads? I love them, both separately, and together. He is so wise beyond his years, and his journey will break your heart and inspire you. She is borderline sociopathic, but I adore her.

Male lead: Tenacious, principled, kind, innocent, caring, driven, loyal…and he can cook! AASI: What’s wrong with secretary Kim, Fight for my way, Hwarang (and soon to be part of the MCU!)

Female lead: One of the most original Kdrama female characters I’ve seen. Plus she retains her agency all the way through, which is (unfortunately) not always the case with these shows.

6. Healer

The lives, and pasts, of a hot shot reporter, a spunky young tabloid journalist and a mysterious thief-for-hire intersect.

I ADORE this show and its so rewatchable. The plot was tight and engaging, and this is one of the few shows I’ve watched where there didn’t seem to be a lot of filler. The central 3 characters are great, and the romance was amazing. I especially loved that the male lead started off such a brooding loner, but he became super-affectionate as soon as he admitted his feelings. So many good hugs and lots of face-cradling in this one. There’s also a great riff on the Superman/Clark Kent dynamic which was fun!

Male lead: Effortlessly beats up 2 henchmen while comforting his girl over the phone. What more do you need? AASI: The K2, Suspicious Partner, Melting me softly, Backstreet Rookie, Lovestruck in the City

Female lead: She doesn’t let her vulnerabilities stop her from getting the story or being with the man she loves. AASI: What’s wrong with secretary Kim, I’ll go to you when the weather is nice, Her private life

7. While you were sleeping

Not to be confused with the Sandra Bullock rom-com from the 90s. Instead, this is about a young woman who can dream the future, who has her fate changed by a young prosecutor who suddenly develops the same ability

I was thoroughly and utterly charmed by this show. Everything was so beautifully done - from the cinematography, to the music (OMG the music!), even the title cards were interesting and quirky. The characters were all great - the main leads are so sweet and relatable, the second lead is cute-as-a-button, the villain is properly hissable, and none of the supporting characters/extras annoyed me! The storyline itself was brilliant, with so many great set-ups, pay-offs and twists, and the romance was lovely.

Male lead: A bit of a hot mess of a human being (basically, the polar opposite of his character in W!)…but all the more loveable for it. AASI: W: 2 worlds, Doctor stranger.

Female lead: Smart, sweet, loyal (I really loved her relationship with her mum) and quietly brave.

8. Descendants of the Sun

A special forces Captain meets a capable and beautiful trauma surgeon. They feel an instant bond, but their jobs and philosophy on life get in the way, threatening to tear them apart.

I absolutely LOVE the male lead character, and the romance in this was beautiful (as was the bromance!). Plus its chock-full of CompetencePorn, with lots of scenes of people being really, really good at their jobs (this is one of my favourite things!). However, it didn’t quite nail the angst, and the last minute was a bit twee which dropped it down the rankings a bit.

Male lead: A cocky, charming, absolute BADASS with the most adorable, cheeky smile. AASI: Vincenzo

Female lead: Sweet and a bit out of her depth in the dangerous situations…but put her in charge of a patient and watch her go!

9. What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim

A personal assistant decides to quits her job in order to get a life. Her boss has other ideas.

This was my first Park Seo Joon drama, and he’s great in it. He somehow turns a self-centred, entitled and vain boss into an endearing character! The central romance is amazing - I can rewatch their scenes again and again - and its a bit more mature than some of the others on this list (be sure to check out the extended scene!!). It has some of the best kisses in Kdrama.

Male lead: Like I said, somehow makes vanity and narcissism endearing. Also not afraid to get his shirt off and flash his 6-pack. Bonus. AASI: Itaewon Class, Fight for my way, Hwarang

Female lead: I’m a sucker for uber-competent people so I loved this character. Park Min Young has become one of my favourites, and she is STUNNING in this. AASI: I’ll go to you when the weather is nice, Healer, Her private life

10. Alchemy of Souls - NEW ENTRY

In a world of magic and soul-shifting, a powerful female assassin agrees to be Master to a young, irreverent mage.

Wow. This was fantasy drama done realllllllly well. The world-building was excellent (you easily come to understand the rules and limitations of the sorcery used) and the effects and imagery were great. The love story at the heart is wonderful - it helps casting Lee Jae-wook who is effortlessly cheeky and charming, but when he flexes his power, he looks ultra-cool. There are more episodes coming in December (Thank God! The ending of S1 nearly broke me!) so I’ll have to see if they stick the landing.

Male lead: His laidback, irreverant facade hides a deep hurt, and a powerful, righteous soul. I love him. AASI: Extraordinary you (seond lead), Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol, When the Weather is Nice (supporting character)

Female lead: I love her too! She’s stern and uncompromising, but when she finally opens her heart and learns to love, you just want all the good things for her. AASI: Because This is My First Life

11. Flower of Evil - NEW ENTRY

A police detective starts to suspect her loving husband may be a killer.

This was a fantastic character study, mystery and exploration of a relationship. The suspense almost killed me at times! I’m usually more of a fan about stories that take place at the beginning of a relationship rather than 14 years in, but I became so invested in them as a family. The choral music is a bit overwrought at times, but that’s one of my only complaints. I could never have imagined where they took things in the last episode but it was really good and an interesting way to further explore the character (I thought it would be cheesy, but it was so well done). Plus the most adorable little girl EVER stars in this.

Male lead: His struggles to desperately keep his family together (even though he didn’t fully understand the feelings they inspired in him) was heartbreaking - he is soooo good in this. AASI: Lawless Lawyer, Scarlet Heart

Female lead: Competent and compassionate. You’re heart aches for her when her world starts to fall apart.

12. Love in the Moonlight / Moonlight Drawn by Clouds

A young woman poses as a eunuch in the Royal Palace and falls in love with the Crown Prince

This was the first period piece I watched and it’s still one of my favourites - almost entirely because of the male lead and his beautiful face! The start had a really light, comedic tone (and a lot of modern anachronisms - high fives everywhere!) and I loved all the identity-concealing hi-jinks. But then the romance kicked into gear and the DELICIOUS angst started flowing, and I became obsessed with it. It’s like loads of bits of my favourite regency historical romances were mashed up and transported to the Joseon Dynasty. I loved it so much!

Male lead: Manages to look amazingly handsome despite all the period headgear, kicks ass with a sword, and doesn’t allow himself to be manipulated by the corrupt officials surrounding him. Also acts like an adorable goofball when he’s in love.

Female lead: Loved her at the start - she’s scrappy and independent and capable. Unfortunately, becomes too much of a plot device by the end. AASI: Backstreet Rookie

13. I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice / I’ll Find You on a Beautiful Day

A cellist disillusioned with life in Seoul returns to her small home town for the winter.

This was achingly sweet and wonderful. The slow unfolding of the story, the beautiful scenery, and the simple yet moving score all combine to make this feel like the type of small town contemporary romance novel I love to read on a rainy day in front of a fire. Whilst long-held, painful secrets are eventually revealed, there is no massive conflict involved, with no antagonist or over-wrought external drama. Its just the tale of two sad, lonely people who have withdrawn from the world forming a connection with each other and trying to overcome their issues (she has a fear of abandonment; he’s a loner who has a tendency to disappear). As a bonus, there’s a bookclub with a wonderful cast of secondary characters - I wanted to spend more time with all of them.

Male Lead: Precious Cinnamon Roll, to be protected at all costs. AASI: Are you human too

Female lead: Wears her heart on her sleeve. Refreshingly, she’s the instigator of the relationship and isn’t the usual passive, coy female. AASI: What’s wrong with secretary Kim, Healer, Her private life

14. Goblin

A 900yr old immortal guardian finally meets the ‘bride’ who will end his existence

Once I got over the slight ick-factor of the age difference between the two characters at the beginning, I really fell for this show and it’s world. It had me in floods of tears at some points, and it was laugh out loud funny at others. I especially loved the secondary character of the Grim Reaper and his reluctant bromance with the Goblin.

Male lead: Surprising innocent and funny for a 900 year old

Female lead: Also innocent, but in some ways wise beyond her years. Her tears will make you cry (the actress is very good at sobbing her heart out!). AASI: The King, eternal monarch

15. Legend of the Blue Sea

A mermaid comes onto land to find the man she loves

The (literal) fish-out-of-water scenes in the first half of this show were hilarious - the actress is a comic genius! The romance was nicely done, and there wasn’t a lot of extraneous plot or too many characters. It also nicely incorporates scenes from the Joseon era, so you get a partial historical romance thrown in for free!

I couldn’t stop watching this one and I’ve since rewatched it too! Definitely one to check out.

Male lead: Cocky, arrogant conman with a soft mushy centre. AASI: The King, Eternal monarch, Heirs.

Female lead: Steals the show - funny, smart and beautiful. AASI: My love from the Star.

16. Into the Ring/The Ballot

An out-of-work young woman decides to run for office and faces all sorts of challenges in her quest to right some wrongs and earn a living.

This show has one of my favourite ever female characters - she’s headstrong, hard working, and quick to violence but so cute and charming with the most adorable laugh! She tries to act all cynical (that she’s only in it for the money) but she is actually really caring and kind. I sooo wanted her to succeed against the establishment of corrupt assholes that she worked with. Seeing her become disillusioned with politics and her colleagues was heartbreaking, and watching her fight back was great.

Her dynamic with the male lead was also great - he’s quietly in awe of her even when he’s exasperated and borderline scared of her. And he’s super supportive. It was so much fun watching her drag him out of his monotonous, dull life. They also weren’t stingy with the PDA which was so refreshing.

On a superficial level, the show was also visually interesting, with loads of cool angles and blue lens flare. And the overall light, funny tone made it so watchable.

Male lead: Adorkable

Female lead: The literal embodiment of sunshine and determination. I have a bit of a crush on her!

17. The King: Eternal Monarch

The reigning King of the Kingdom of Corea discovers a gateway to a parallel world - the Republic of Korea

This is the first drama I’ve watched in ‘real time’ but I think it would work better as a binge - there are a LOT of characters, and many have dopplegangers (because of the parallel world thing) so it became hard to keep track of who was who. I also think the progression of the romance is better appreciated in a binge (I wrote about it here - ignore the speculation; i got it so wrong LOL!). Unfortunately, the plot also had major holes in it (the ‘rules’ for the gateway/magical flute didn’t make sense) and It was difficult at times to differentiate Corea from Korea - a major failing of the editing.

Buuuuuut, it still made my ‘Great’ list because all of those issues were outweighed by the sheer epicness of this show. The gorgeous sets, the dramatic scenery, the ANGST-filled, beautiful romance…at one point the King rides a majestic white horse into battle with a sword on a neon-lit highway to save the woman he loves. I mean, come on! Plus, its really funny - the ‘fish out of water’ scenes when the King first arrives in Korea, the chalk and cheese dopplegangers Yeong and Eun-Seob, the King’s constant threats of beheading…I loved those elements so much!

Male lead: Gives Ri Jeong-Hyeok from CHOY a run for his money in the ‘Best Boyfriend’ competition. AASI: Legend of the blue sea, Heirs.

Female lead: A bad-ass cop. Takes a while to believe Lee Gon’s story, but once she decides to go all in…she goes all in, and loves unreservedly with her whole heart. AASI: Goblin

18. Tomorrow with you

A time-traveller struggling to live in the present meets a woman trying to let go of her past.

This reminded me a bit of ‘I’ll go to you when the weather is nice’ in terms of the melancholic tone, the simple but effective music, and the beautiful lighting etc. There were also some really interesting, innovative shots which I appreciated.

It took a few episodes to get into and it was a bit frustrating in the middle - so much could have been solved if people just TALKED to each other!! Plus the rules for this version of time travel weren’t really clear…But the last few episodes were brilliant; the way the story came together, and all the little bits of set up were paid off was really well done. These episodes alone were enough to bump this up to the ‘Great’ category (especially, given there was a bit of a Lake House vibe at one point - I’m a sucker for that movie). The romance was also beautifully portrayed; I could endlessly watch their domestic scenes - they had such good chemistry and banter.

Male lead: Absolutely, but endearingly, terrible at relationships. He ends up falling in love against his will and largely without realising it.

Female lead: A bit of a mess and a borderline alcoholic, but so cute and innocent. I love the way she talks to herself, she’s so funny! AASI: Oh My Venus

19. Fight for my Way

Two life-long friends decide to go after their dreams

I fast-forwarded large chunks of this (I wasn’t interested in the secondary couple at all), but it still made my ‘Great’ list because this is one of the best friends-to-lovers stories I’ve seen. You truly buy that these 2 have known each other their entire lives (their bickering and teasing feels so natural). And then when they take the next step, they’re so affectionate and refreshingly open with their feelings. Speaking of which, this also has some great kissing scenes (Park Seo Joon is the master!)

Male lead: I love his contradictions. He’s goofy and childish…but can really turn on the sexy charm; he’s a badass MMA fighter…who loves when his girlfriend sticks up for him and protects him. AASI: What’s wrong with secretary Kim, Itaewon class, Hwarang

Female lead: Takes no shit from anyone and will fight for her man! AASI: Descendants of the sun (secondary character)

20. Vincenzo - NEW ENTRY

A Korean man raised in the Italian mafia to be a mob lawyer returns to Seoul with some ulterior motives.

This has the strange tone typical of Kdramas - one minute its a goofy comedy, the next some truly dark violence is going down - and it pulls it off really well. The cast is all great, it was a unique story, and the male lead was charismatic as always. The story is not romance heavy - its got more of a found family vibe - but I still enjoyed it. It dragged a bit in the latter half, but that half contained some genuinely great moments. This is also the only kdrama my aunt and uncle have ever watched and they became obsessed with it.

Male lead: Slick, dangerous and charming, with a heart of gold that he tries REALLY hard to hide. AASI: Descendents of the sun.

Female lead: Loud and ballsy with some questionable ethics - so not the typical Kdrama female! She was great.

21. Suspicious Partner

A young, hardworking lawyer has her life turned upside down when she is put on trial for murder.

This was officially bumped up the list a while ago, and I stand by the decision. Its still overly long, but the serial killer plot had some nice twists and it was central to the story, so it didn’t feel extraneous like some of these types of plots do. Mainly, I just loved the central romance - the 2 characters sparked off each other so well and I loved their evolution from sort-of enemies to lovers. This is another show where I can endlessly rewatch their scenes together.

Male lead: Its Ji Chang Wook! He’s so good at playing serious guys who are secretly big dorks. AASI: Healer, The K2, Melting me softly, Backstreet Rookie, Lovestruck in the City

Female lead: Fate deals her a shitty hand, but she perseveres with grace and determination. She’s great. AASI: Shopaholic Louis, 100 days my prince.

The GOOD (in no particular order)

Lovestruck in the city - NEW ENTRY

A documentary-style tale of different couples in Seoul

I loved the premise of this, and, unsually, I was just as invested in the secondary relationships as the main pair (they even introduced a final couple in the final episode and had me rooting for them - which is a testament to the good casting and chemistry). I have to admit I went off Chi Chang-wook after Backstreet Rookie (I loathed that show so much!) but he won me back here. Jae Won is such a charming mess!

Bring it on Ghost - NEW ENTRY

A man who can see ghosts starts working with one

I officially became an Ok Taecyeon fan after this - he’s adorable. The show is fun and rolicks along at a good pace. The central romance is really sweet with lovely angsty moments. Would definitely recommend.

I Am Not a Robot

A man who is allergic to human contact finds companionship with a robot…or does he?

I honestly thought I wouldn’t make it passed a couple of episodes of this - the concept was just too ridiculous. But I’m glad I persevered, because it developed some real depth and some proper good angst towards the end and I LOVED the central relationship. I’ve rewatched loads of this one.

I Remember You

A famous criminal profiler gatecrashes the investigation of a serial killer, hoping it will restore the missing memories of his childhood trauma

I really liked the set up of this - the lead character is introduced like a young Sherlock Holmes (the music even reminded me of the score for the BBC Sherlock series). The super-observant, socially awkward thing kind of dropped off as the series progressed, but I still enjoyed how the plot developed, especially with Park Bo-Gum’s character; I’ve only ever seen him play innocent cutie-pies, so this role was a bit of a surprise!

The female lead was like an anime character come to life (she was petite and cute with enormous eyes), but I also loved her personality; she was tenacious, and dogged and took no shit from anyone. She had a cute, antagonistic relationship with the profiler at the start (which I loved) which eventually led to some really sweet, touching moments.

Hotel del Luna

A hotel for wandering spirits gets a new human manager - and he forms a surprising connection to the enigmatic 1300 year old owner

If I had to describe this show in one word it would be ’lavish’. It’s a feast for the eyes - from the set design, to the costumes, to the CGI views of the hotel towering over the moon-lit Seoul cityscape, its stunning. It also plays with aspect ratios in a cool way (watch for the shots where the action spills over into the black bars top and bottom of the screen).

In terms of the characters, I really liked IU in this; her character may be uncaring, world-weary, and money-hungry, but she’s also immensely charming. I admit I got more platonic vibes with her and the male lead, but I still liked their relationship. I also really liked the stories of the ghosts passing through (some reduced me to tears with very little screen time) and there were a couple of GREAT cameos. Especially the one at the very end - I want more of him, please!!

My Holo Love

A lonely woman falls for a holographic AI and then meets his creator…

I love the concept of this show (I’m a big sci-fi nerd), and I think this stayed in my ‘favourite’ list for so long because it was the first Kdrama of this genre that I saw. I still love it - especially because of how beautifully it’s shot, and how well the story comes together - but I’m not dying to rewatch any of it, unlike all the others shows that are now on the ‘great’ list.

Extraordinary You

A high school student discovers she’s a supporting character in a comic book

The plot of this was so cool, and the way the comic story played out interspersed with the characters ‘real lives’ was really well done. Plus the central couple were so adorable. It dragged in the middle section (several versions of the same conversations were had, and the same exposition was spelled out multiple ways for no apparent reason) which kept it out of my favourite list, but it redeemed itself with some good angst at the end, and it had a really lovely ‘epilogue’.

Just Between Lovers

Three people impacted by a tragic shopping mall collapse start working on a building project together, unaware of their shared past.

I absolutely adore the male lead in this - he is the archetypal tortured hero (I constantly wanted to give him a hug and a warm meal). He’s also wonderfully romantic in his own, straightfoward, no-nonsense way. The female lead was really likeable - l love capable women and she is the definition of that (she even drives a lorry at one point!). There’s a lot of pain and angst in this show, with very little levity, but it strangely never felt heavy. I really liked it.

Strong Girl Bong-Soon

A woman with inherited super-strength gets a job as a bodyguard for an eccentric young CEO

The lead couple in this are AD-OR-ABLE and I loved their relationship. But there was a weird tone issue in this show. The romance is super cute…but there’s a whole dark sub plot involving multiple women being held captive by a psychopath, and a really grating cast of ‘bad guy’ extras. I ended up fast forwarding most of that, and just concentrated on the romance - If someone could do a supercut of all their scenes, I would watch it on a loop.

30 but 17/Still 17

A 17 year old girl gets into an accident and wakes from a coma 13 years later.

I was worried going into this that the romance (between a 30 year old man and (essentially) a 17 year old girl) would feel icky and uncomfortable. But the writers made the wise choice of creating a 30 year old man with the emotional maturity of a 17 year old. He is so awkward and unworldly, that they actually work really well together. In fact, I loved their relationship. The secrets in this show took faaaar too long to be revealed, which made me worried that the eding would be too rushed, but there was actually time for a nice ‘epilogue’. Plus, all the supporting characters were great (including the wonderfully weird housekeeper Jennifer) and the cutest dog in the world was in this. So I definitely recommend it.

Hometown cha cha cha - NEW ENTRY

A big city dentist opens a practice in a seaside town and clashes with the local jack-of-all-trades.

This hooked me and made me look forward to the weekends even more so I could get my fix. The story is slight (slice-of-life type thing) but the characters had me engaged and it was an enemies - friends - lovers story which is my catnip.

The male lead was such an intriguing character and the female lead has charm in spades. The romantic scenes bordered on far too cheesy but you can understood why (this was basically their first relationship) so I let it slide. Lovely cast of supporting characters.

Nevertheless - NEW ENTRY

Two art students embark on a friends-with-benefits relationship.

I binged this in one weekend. It reminded me of the slightly trashy YA romances that are my gulity pleasure - where the innocent girl falls for the college Fuckboy. You know she shouldn’t end up with him, but you can’t resist their chemistry. The male lead’s character remained a mystery even by the end of the show, and he really only started to show any semblance of feelings in the last episode, which was a let down. He was so underdeveloped which was a shame, because this show really captured my attention otherwise - in large part because I’m not used to this storyline in Kdramas. There is lots of sex! Actual removal of clothes occurs (and there’s a lovely montage of the main couple sharing a bed which was a visual highlight). So overall I enjoyed it - not least for the side romances - every one of which worked for me (which is unusual).

Da-Li and the Cocky Prince - NEW ENTRY

A down-on-her luck art curator teams up with a noveau rich ex-thug to save her father’s art museum.

This is the poor girl meets arrogant rich guy trope - but with a twist. She used to be rich and he used to be poor. This leads to a great dynamic between them. His character on paper (an uncultured money-obssessed ex-thug who has a great head for business) is elevated so much by the charm of the actor - you really root for him and his attempts to fit in to this new world. Would recommend!

Mystic Pop-up Bar

As punishment for past sins, a woman must solve the grudges of 100,000 people by entering their dreams

This was an unexpected delight. I started watching it after spotting a cute gifset on tumblr (which I didn’t realise contained huge spoilers!). The story and tone is (mostly) light and quirky, and I particularly enjoyed the worldbuilding - the banal bureaucracy of the afterlife in this even reminds me a bit of The Good Place. I’m a sucker for a ‘found family’ theme and this one was done really nicely. It also had 2 main ships - one really cute and innocent, the other took me by surprise with how moving it was. Similarly, some of the episode-specific stories and characters (i.e. the individual grudges) made me tear up.

100 days my prince

A Prince loses his memory during an assassination attempt and ends up living as a peasant for 100 days.

Another period piece; the plots of these seem a little repetitive (Crown prince’s life is threatened by scheming Minister) but the central cast and the romance usually makes up for it. Same for this show - I really enjoyed watching the spoiled, grumpy puppy of a Prince try to cope with manual labour, and the female lead was capable, and endearing.

True beauty - NEW ENTRY

Starting at a new school, a bullied ‘ugly’ girl reinvents herself with the help of makeup

This was really cute! I love Cha Eun-woo in anything and whilst this was similar in theme to one of his other shows (Gangnam beauty) I still enjoyed it on its own merits. He is so cute and charming and his dynamic with the female lead carried the show. The second lead also grew on me, but I wish they hadn’t dragged out the love triangle quite so much.

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo

A young talented weightlifter experiences first love

Honestly, I wasn’t sold on this at first; the female lead was a bit much (lot of gurning and over-acting) and there was a weird disconnect between how she was described (big, overweight, manly, unfeminine) and how she actually looked (thin and beautiful!). But the back half of this show saved it; her relationship with Joon-Hyung was sooooo cute. He is adorable, and they were both so supportive of each other’s dreams. I finished this with a big smile on my face.

Are You Human Too

A mother separated from her son builds a robotic replacement. Decades later, he has to take the place of the ‘real’ son.

I loved the evolution of the robot in this - it never went the way of a full Pinnochio story, but it was fun to see him learning about the real world and how humans interact. It also posed some interesting questions - what does it mean to be human? And how would you react if you were ‘replaced’ by an artificial version?

The actor in this was fantastic. The way he could change from the real Nam Shin to Nam Shin III with the most subtle shifts in posture and facial expression was really impressive. It took me longer to warm to the female lead, and by the end she was given very little to do…but her unflinching support and unconditional love for Nam Shin III won me over. Some of the supporting characters didn’t work for me, and it was far too long…but worth a watch for the lead actor’s performance. Plus, Nam Shin III is an absolute cutie-pie.

Shopaholic Louis/ Shopping King Louis

The young, shopaholic heir to a large department store empire loses his memory and has to live as a poor man

The male lead in this is an absolute puppy dog and I ADORE him. He squeals when he sees bugs, he can’t run to save his life, and he’s the type of guy who will punch someone and immediately apologise and ask if they’re ok. He’s spoilt, entitled, demanding and has no concept of the value of money…but thanks to the actor portraying him, he just comes across as innocent, sweet and lonely (he spends all his time shopping and accumulating stuff because they fills up his empty life). The female lead is just a really nice, kind person; at first Louis seems like he’ll be just one more burden she needs to take care of, but he makes it clear from the start that she can count on him to help her too - something she’s never had before. Their relationship develops so naturally and thoroughly that you cant help but feel they are perfect for each other. I watched this with a big smile on my face.

Oh My Venus

The previously much-lusted after ‘Venus of Daegu’ fulfilled her dream of becoming a lawyer - but she gained weight and lost her self esteem in the process.

I adored the female lead - she was so relentlessly bright and optimistic that you couldn’t help but love her and root for her. I was a bit worried going in that there was going to be a lot of fat-shaming, but the male lead made it clear that he was more interested in her internal health than her external appearance (and you could tell he started to fall for her when she was chubby, so it wasn’t superficial in that way). I wasn’t expecting for him to become so much of the focus in the second half of the show (I thought he was just going to be a hunky trainer; I should have known better - in a Kdrama there is always a Tragic Backstory looming!). Their relationship was so natural and cute - the bit with the dimples never got old - and overall, this was a fun, easy watch.

A Piece of your Mind

A classical music recording engineer meets an AI designer.

I struggled to sum-up the concept of this in one sentence, because the ‘plot’ is so arbitrary (and the AI stuff makes no sense whatsoever!). It’s really more of a mood piece - the lighting, the music and the performance combine to make this a strangely ethereal show, dealing with unrequited love, grief and the importance of human connection. It’s slow and contemplative and a little odd in its structure (there’s very little set-up, so you feel like you’ve been dropped into episode 3 of an established show). This may put some people off, but I really liked it.

I started watching it because of the leads (who I’ve loved in other shows) and they didn’t disappoint. She is so kind and lovely; he’s a little odd - like a robot learning about life. But their relationship is so beautiful (it even included one of my favourite niche tropes: insomniacs who can only sleep around each other).

Apparently the episode run was cut down from 16 to 12 because of poor ratings, which is a real shame because i think a bit more time was needed to really sell the female lead’s emotional arc. It all felt a little rushed at the end, but I still enjoyed it, and admired that it tried something a little unconventional.

Rookie Historian

An independent, educated woman choses to become one of the first female court historians, rather than get married.

This show had a really interesting premise and I enjoyed watching the rookie female historians navigate court-life (battling workplace harassment, misogyny and patriarchal values) and developing a real friendship with each other.

The female lead was fantastic - she was headstrong, pragmatic, unapologetically intelligent, a lover of books and a hater of injustice. She shared that love of books with the male lead, who was sensitive, soft-spoken, and innocent. The ultimate beta hero, who’s romantic fantasies involved him feeding her cookies and fanning her while she sleeps!

Their romance took a backseat for a lot of the show, but I didn’t mind as the plot was exploring interesting topics such as intruders from the West, catholicism, and censorship, etc.

Tempted/The Great Seducer

In an act of revenge, a wealthy heir makes a bet with his friends to seduce a hardworking female college student

10 minutes into this I started to get major Cruel Intentions vibes…which made sense when I found out it was also an adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons! It doesn’t have the dark edge or overt sexuality of Cruel Intentions (which is one of my favs) but its still good - mainly due to the male lead. I ADORED him in TKEM and he’s really good here. I’m a sucker for the ‘bad boy falls in love for the first time’ trope and he played it so well. The female lead was also good - she was self-aware, strong, intelligent and took no shit. I was less interested by the love affairs of the adults around them, but overall it was a good show.

The OK

My shy boss / Introverted boss

An extroverted actress takes a job at a PR company working for a man with crippling shyness

This was another deceptive show; I thought from the title and the synopsis that it would just be a light opposites attract comedy about an introverted man and an extroverted woman. But I was almost in tears by the second episode when the Tragic Backstory came to light, and we saw the full extent of the Boss’ struggles to communicate with other human beings. He has such a rich, funny, and smart inner monologue, and the way he overthinks every interaction is really endearing…which makes the contrast with his silent and withdrawn external persona all the more stark and heartbreaking. You really root for him to find happiness. This was overly long (a common pitfall with these shows) and there was some distracting shaky camera work in some of the close ups. There were also implications early on about workplace sexual harassment and possibly dubious consent in a one night stand which were dropped, leaving a bit of a sour note. Despite that, it was overall fairly enjoyable and has one of the cutest confession scenes!

The OK

Because this is my First Life

A rational-to-a-fault software designer and an aspiring screenwriter come up with an unconventional way to solve their housing problem

When I started this, I thought it was going to be all light and fluffy (the main character’s job in the beginning was to insert the product placement in Korean dramas - hello, Red Ginseng! - which I found hilarious and meta) but it had a surprisingly melancholic tone throughout and touched on issues of workplace harassment and gender roles. I didn’t warm to the male lead until right at the end (which was probably partly intentional - he’s very remote and closed off) but overall I found the story quite lovely. Plus it had a really great central female friendship and their conversations actually passed the Bechdel test!

My Love from the Star

Alien stranded on earth meets an actress soon before he’s due to be rescued.

It took a couple of goes to get into this one, but I’m glad I finally watched the whole thing (the female lead was initially very irritating, but she improved a lot). I enjoyed the present-day romance and all the flashes back to the past. However, the ending was really abrupt and disappointing (which kept it out of my favourite list). There should have been 1 less filler episode in the middle, and a decent, fleshed out finale instead.

The K2

An ex-mercenary takes a job as a bodyguard protecting the illegitimate daughter of a politician. A sort-of Snow White retelling.

This started off really well; there are some amazing fight sequences (hello, shower room scene!) and JCW has never been hotter - its worth watching for him alone. However, the back half became really bogged down in double crosses and manipulations, and it focussed too much on the politicians. The writers did well to give these characters some layers, but they were all essentially doing bad things for the wrong reasons, and I just didn’t care about them. The show was much better when it was following K2’s journey. The romance also started off well, but was a bit underdeveloped (mainly because they barely interacted).

Dol Dol Sol Sol La La Sol - NEW ENTRY

A sheltered, spoilt rich girl falls on hard times and is helped by a young man hiding a big secret.

I loved the bright, colourful, easy tone of this and the underlying story (which reminded me of Shopping King Louis). It has an equally innocent and charming lead who (on paper) should have been annoying and entitled. However, the twist after episode 4 (i think) really threw me and I wasn’t sure I could continue it. But I did.… only to encounter a ridiculous ending which somewhat soured me on the whole show. Watch if you’re a big fan of the central leads but be prepared to throw things at your TV.

Great Shaman Go Doo Shim - NEW ENTRY

A high school girl from a long line of Shamans reluctantly enters the family business to rid her new school of an evil spirit.

I watched this for the male lead - he’s played the younger version of so many of my favourite characters so I’ve been looking forward to his debut as a lead. He had really sweet chemistry with the female lead, who I’m also eager to see in other things. Overall, this show was short and slight, but cute.

So I Married the Antifan - NEW ENTRY

An idol and a reporter star in a reality series where they pretend to be together.

I liked the bickering between the main couple at the start of this (who doesn’t love a good enemies-to-lovers trope!) and the show had a good set up…but it ran out of steam a bit. The female lead became far too passive which started to get on my nerve. And the second couple were sooo annoying. Overall - a good central romance, but I probably won’t be rewatching this.

He is psychometric - NEW ENTRY

A man with the gift of psychometry teams up with a police officer to solve an old crime

I loved the set up of this and the male lead is really likeable. But I wasn’t a fan of the big plot reveal towards the end - not because it wasn’t well executed, but because of how it impacted the characters. It spoiled a bit of my enjoyment.

Bride of Habaek / Bride of the Water God

A God of the Land of Water visits the human realm to fulfil a task before ascending to his throne. He enlists the help of a ‘divine servant’, a down-on-her-luck psychiatrist.

I started this because I liked the lead actor. His baby-face can’t quite pull off the intensity needed for this role, but he was still cute as the arrogant, imperious God brought low by his circumstances - no money, house, powers or (most importantly to him) driving license. I also liked the female lead - she so desperately wanted to hide her kind, compassionate heart from a world that had battered and bruised her. There were some good individual scenes (especially the ‘confession’ moment, which was just lovely), but the show ran out of steam towards the end, and ultimately felt like a waste of potential.

Her Private Life

A talented art curator tries to keep her professional persona separate from her fangirl obsession with a pop idol.

This was cute and I loved the central relationship - he was so supportive of her, and their interactions were refreshingly mature and their banter felt really natural. Ultimately, it was a bit forgettable (I’m not dying to rewatch any of it), and the last minute tacked-on childhood trauma subplot was really unnecessary.

Touch Your Heart

Star actress rocked by scandal works at a law firm to prepare for her comeback role

This starred the secondary couple from Goblin and I really like them, even though they are playing very different characters in this (more opposites attract, than doomed lovers). It’s a bit too ‘cutesy’ and I had to fast forward a lot of the secondary romances which I wasn’t invested in.

My Secret Terrius

A secret agent on the run gets embroiled in the life of his next door neighbour - a mum of young twins.

The romance in this was underwhelming; the two characters ended in a really cute place, but it felt like set up for a story I probably would have liked more than this one. In saying that, this was still a relatively enjoyable watch; the female lead was great - she was constantly underestimated as ‘just a housewife’ but she was smarter, and more determined and resourceful than the spies around her. The male lead’s interactions with the twins were adorable, and there was a good cast of supporting characters. However, I’ve already pretty much forgotten the main espionage plot!

Where stars land - NEW ENTRY

A man who dreamed of being a pilot ends up working at the airport - and he hides an unusual secret.

I like the two main actors in this, which is the reason I started watching it. But (confession) I didn’t make any notes as I was watching the show and a year later I can’t remember a single thing that happened. I do recall that it was solidly made and I enjoyed watching it at the time…but it was obviously pretty forgettable!

Abyss - NEW ENTRY

Two friends are dragged into a plot surrounding a mysterious device - the Abyss.

This was a fun ride but ultimately a bit forgettable. The central conceit (you come back to life in a body that better reflects your soulI) was different and fun and the two leads getting used to their change in fortunes was amusing. They ultimately made a cute couple, but (as usual) I was less interested in the murder subplot.

Come and Hug Me - NEW ENTRY

A stoic policeman and a budding young actress share a past trauma

I liked the central relationship in this one (although the actor needed to blink more - it was so disconcerting!). But the father was a one-note hissable villain and the story was overly long and slooooow. Not one of my favs.

Strongest delivery man - NEW ENTRY

A delivery man who dreams of a better life.

I like an underdog story, so I had fun watching this. I also appreciated how the second lead could have been a typical villain but they made him so sympathetic and pitifiul (plus he was played by one of my new favs - Kim Seon-ho - so I was rooting for him to be a better man).

Business Proposal - NEW ENTRY

A case of mistaken identity leads to hijinks between a cold, aloof CEO and one of his employees

This was fun and passed the time, but was fairly slight. The male lead felt like a lesser-version of Park Seo-Joon from What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? That show dealt with the story a cold, aloof businessman dealing with childhood trauma much better. But the female lead in this was a delight.

Lawless Lawyer

A gangster-turned-lawyer moves to Gisung to take on corruption with the help of a suspended female attorney

I liked this more at the beginning; it reminded me a bit of Itaewon Class, with a charismatic lead, an intricately plotted revenge scheme that the audience only becomes aware of as the series progresses, and a take-no-shit female lead who was introduced hitting an authority figure! However, it never really gripped me (it took me weeks to finish) and a couple of the villains were overacting and hamming it up all over the place. But I loved the two leads, and their relationship was good, despite feeling a bit rushed.

1% of Something

To gain his inheritance, an arrogant, aloof CEO has to enter into a marriage contract with a sweet primary school teacher.

I liked how streamlined this was: it was just a show about two people who fall in love despite their best intentions. There was no overly complicated plot, and even the conflict that keeps them apart towards the end felt very organic and unforced.

She is a delightful ball of sunshine. He is a little overbearing but has his own charm. And bear with the bad haircut and appalling fashion sense - he improves at the end!

Melting Me Softly

Two people are accidentally cryogenically frozen for 20 years. They have to navigate the modern world and their new lives together.

Another good concept, but it ultimately descended into little more than a light work-place romance. Had a couple of good kissing scenes, but it was overall a bit forgettable.

My Sassy Girl

A 'sassy’ princess meets an ambitious scholar in less than ideal circumstances…

I enjoyed the fact that this Joseon period drama focused on a Princess for a change, and not a prince. She came across as more 'obnoxious and immature’ than 'sassy’ in the beginning, but once it was made clear that she was actually a decent, kind person underneath, I soon warmed to her. I also liked the relationship with the male lead, which amounted to a pretty good enemies-to-lovers story. It took a bit of an unexpected turn right at the end, but my independent, feminine self was good with it. Overall, this was a pretty easy watch, but nothing special.

Hwarang

Follows a peasant who joins the newly-created Hwarang (Poet Warrior Youths in ancient Korea) to enact revenge for the death of his best friend

I enjoyed the scenes of the Hwarang hanging out and bonding - so many cute bromances in this! But I couldn’t really connect with the central story and romance, due to a major case of SLS (Second Lead Syndrome) - as much as I’m a fan of Park Seo-joon, I adore Park Hyung-sik, and I found his character, journey and relationship with the female lead much more compelling. The ending still managed to feel somewhat satisfying, but I won’t be rewatching any of it.

The BAD

Hyde, Jekyll and Me

A woman becomes involved in the lives of 2 men, who share one body

Hyun Bin is sooo watchable in this, especially as the slick-haired, glasses-wearing, uptight Seo-Jin. And the show started well…but quickly went off the rails into a convoluted, dragged-out revenge plot. It was a bit of a slog to get through, to be honest.

Queen: Love and War

The long lost twin of a recently assassinated Queen assumes her identity to enter the Bridal selection to wed the resurrected King and seek revenge.

This was a bit of a mess (as you can tell from that synopsis!); it felt like the first few episodes were rushed through as a sort of ‘prologue’ before the main thrust of the story…but that prologue contained A LOT of plot with some major character revelations that were rapidly skimmed over (e.g. the female lead was introduced as having complete amnesia; but almost out of nowhere she casually mentions that she got all her memories back and now knows who she is). Because of this, it took me a while to get a sense of who the characters really were. A lot of the usual Joseon plot points played out (scheming ministers and untrustworthy queens) but it had some unique features - I especially enjoyed the bridal selection scenes and seeing the lead female outwitting her rivals in the various challenges. But ultimately, I fast forwarded a lot of this and it was pretty forgettable.

Backstreet Rookie

A struggling young woman takes a part-time job at the convenience store run by her high school crush.

I was really not a fan of this show, and probably would have stopped watching if it wasn’t for Kim Yoo-jung. Her character was really likeable - kickass, but vulnerable, and so loving and kind. You were really rooting for her throughout. The show also had some interesting things to say about inequality (there was a lovely scene between the male leads’s parents in episode 10 touching on this theme)…but that’s about it for the positives.

Overall, it was just too OTT and manic and most of the characters were barely more than cartoonish caricatures. One character was actually repulsive, and the fact that he got his own romantic subplot was just gross. I’m a big fan of Ji Chang-wook, but I didn’t like some of his acting choices in this, and his character spent far too long in a relationship with another woman, which meant the main romance felt underdeveloped.

And…it ended without a kiss. I was so pissed off! I put up with 16 episodes of crap, expecting a decent pay-off at the end…but no. I wouldn’t recommend this one.

The UNCLASSIFIABLE

Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo

A modern girl is transported 1000 years into the past where she becomes embroiled in the lives of the Royal Princes.

I honestly don’t know where I stand with this one! Did I love it? Did I hate it? I seriously don’t know!

I was reluctant to start this (I knew it didn’t have a happy ending) but I was told its a rite of passage for KDrama newbies to watch this show. And there were some great things about it - the male lead was amazing! So intense and tragic, with the most arresting face. The music was also GORGEOUS, as was the scenery - the whole production felt very sumptuous. The palace intrigue stuff was also more compelling than most of the other historic dramas I’ve seen. I recognised several of the Princes from other shows, and I became really invested in 3 of them…which made the constant threat of them betraying each other/killing each other AGONISING. This show was heavy on the Emotional Torture Porn, and some of it felt gratuitous, because I just didn’t understand the motivations behind some of the plot points/character’s actions.

I also wasn’t a big fan of the female lead; partly because the actress only seemed to have 2 facial expressions to work with, but partly because and any hints that she was a modern girl with modern sensibilities quickly disappeared. It was this independence and spunk that made all the princes fall for her (to varying degrees) but she lost all of that and it left me wondering why they bothered with the time travel aspect at all.

I finished the show feeling wrung out and with the overwhelming sense of “Why? What was the point of that?”

Buuuuuut…it has lingered with me - as @talenevertold said when we were discussing the show, “Nobody enjoys it in the process… but it leaves this unique bittersweet aftertaste…” and that’s absolutely true; and it probably true that this show IS a rite of passage that everyone should watch. But don’t say I didn’t warn you!

and…The MEH (i.e. DNF):

This list is getting long! I have a bit less patience with shows than I did in the beginning - there are so many to get through, so I’m not willing to waste my time on anything that either doesn’t grip me from a story perspective, is far too slow, has mediocre acting and/or is too soapy

Master’s sun

Tale of Nokdu

The Heirs

Meow, the Secret Boy

Love Alarm

One Spring Night

Suits

Chocolate

Doctor Stranger

The Scholar Who Walks the Night

Oh Master!

Something In the rain

Alice

Live Up to Your Name

Record of Youth

Run on

Oh my Ghost

If I’ve made a heinous mistake by dropping any of these - get in touch and plead the case for why i should give them another chance!

#Kdrama #Kdramas #kdrama rec #Kdrama recommendations

64 notes · View notes

hehicular-hanslaughter-lecter · 2 years

Text

Okay.

So. I, personally, have read the original novel, translated by Alexander Teixeira De Mattos. I've seen the ALW musical live, I've seen the 2004 movie based on the musical, I've seen the Charles Dance miniseries, I've even read Phantom by Susan Kay. I say this only to preface that I sincerely love The Phantom of the Opera, and have invested a lot of time and energy into consuming and discussing it.

Now that all of that's out of the way, this is (in my opinion that no one else has to share) the worst adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera that I've ever seen.

I am disappointed, because MazM's Jekyll and Hyde was so good--it was book-accurate, it kept all of the same themes, and it was gorgeously designed and full of suspense and intrigue. The same cannot be said for this game. I have only three major complaints, the rest aren't nearly as important to me and could be excusable if not for the previously mentioned three.

1. Erik.

Erik, Erik, Erik, this character that we call Erik. He is by far the most important character and the one this game butchers the most horrendously.

In the original novel (which is my point of reference) Erik is a pitiable man who has suffered tremendously--and I say pitiable because the book itself tells the reader to pity him. His face inspires fear and hatred in all he met, even in Christine, and for this he was ostracized and hunted. There is no mistaking, in the original novel, that he has led a miserable life that is made miserable by the torment he is subjected to by others.

But this game makes a point of changing that.

Instead of the outcast we see in the novel, MazM deigns to assert (literally, through dialogue) that the terror and hatred of his face is a self-made construct, something only one person, the Shah, ever subjected him to. Gone is the man hated by the world, with a good reason to go underground and with an even better reason to fear showing his face; instead we are given a man tortured by one individual, who is understandably afraid of further torment, who's insecurities are denied and played as "paranoia". This bizarre choice seems to stem from the narrative choice, a baffling and all-together damning choice, to make Erik a full-on villain rather than the byronic hero he was written as.

(I will also point out that, if his insecurity was merely unfounded paranoia, why was he a circus attraction, again? Surely if the Shah was the only person to loathe Erik's face, then he wouldn't have been sold and used in this way--after all, what use could a circus have for a conventional man, even if he was ugly, other than as an errand boy? This is a paradox--a raging plothole.)

This leads into my next point: Erik, in this game, does not love Christine. He doesn't even seem to like her all that much. The point of the novel was that compassion is a strength, not a weakness, and that everyone is capable of and deserves compassion. The Erik of Leroux's work chose compassion, as was the point of the novel, and let her go--because he loved her. This is how he transcends villainy and becomes a byronic hero; because he lets her go, proving he really did love her after all, because to him, her happiness was more important than his.

This Erik calls Christine worthless, talentless, and by the end of the game refers to her solely as "the devil". He has no sympathy for her pain and is completely apathetic to her emotional and even physical state, only once showing concern for her health when she feigns illness to escape his lair. In every conversation he makes an effort to showcase his villainy and cruelty, with pointless threats and constant bullying that is simply not present in the novel. In the novel, Christine and Erik are never shown interacting casually; the only conversations we are privy to are when he abducts her the first time, and when Raoul and the Daroga are listening through the torture chamber wall. Never once do we see them in a music lesson, or even when they're inside of Erik's home. This has lead to speculation about the true nature of their relationship by fans, namely the question of how Christine viewed him--did she love him in any way, were they close, how did she feel about all of this, etc. The only confirmation about her feelings we get is that she is terrified of him and wishes to escape from him. The interpretation that MazM goes with is an incredibly dull one; that Christine's feelings aren't complicated, that they don't have a real relationship, and that all she feels is resentment and terror, nothing more.

To wrap up this section, MazM's Erik is a flat, Machiavellian, loveless creature who, despite his incredible trauma and stunted emotional/moral development (not my interpretation, this is told to us), is met with disdain and malice, who ultimately dies unloved and abandoned in a "karmic" move by the writers that is entirely upsetting and unfulfilling. He makes no move for change because he's a "monster" and "monsters" don't change, do they? Instead of loving Christine, he feels nothing but possessiveness towards her and wishes to marry her to own her like a prized jewel, not because he feels a kinship with her and hopes that he can be human with her. This Erik is not the Erik that Leroux wrote; this is a cheap cartoon-villain copy.

2. Christine and Melek

I will begin this section by stating that Melek is not a character. Melek is a tool, a reason why Erik cannot and should not be redeemed.

Melek doesn't exist in the novel, which would be fine were she not such an obvious puppy for Erik to kick, but it shows in her execution. She has no purpose; she has a paltry backstory and no diversity of characterization, making her flat, 2D, lifeless. In the last two chapters she ceases to exist altogether, barely speaking to Erik or Christine except to offer vague commentary about their arguments. I know exactly why--because the conflict is between Erik and Christine, and Melek has no part to play in their confrontation. (Why they didn't have Erik throw her in the torture chamber alongside Raoul and the Daroga, I'll never know.) Furthermore, she has the honor of saying one of the cruelest sentiments this game has to offer--that Erik, who in that moment is in the midst of a flashback to his time in Iran, "deserves" to be tormented in this manner, to have PTSD and flashbacks, which is a statement I didn't think MazM was low enough to make, but apparently they are. I could condemn this character on this act alone, but fortunately for us there is more to discuss, and one of those things is her relationship with Christine.

Christine in the novel was a woman with a good head on her shoulders and an even greater heart. She first and foremost acted with everyone's safety in mind, obeying Erik's demands to keep Raoul and herself safe, but she also defied him by speaking with Raoul and going out of her way to protect him in cases such as the Masquerade ball. Her agency is never in question as a reader: she is doing what she must to survive and also finding ways to defy her captor at the same time. Her ultimate act of defiance, however, is not against Erik, but for him--she chooses the scorpion instead of the grasshopper. This is important--in the novel, Raoul and the Daroga both believe that she will choose the grasshopper and they all will die, not because they doubt her courage, but because they don't think anyone could or would choose the scorpion. She however defies all expectations, chooses the scorpion, and promises to be Erik's living bride, meaning she won't commit suicide to escape him, before kissing him on the forehead. This is what compels Erik to free her; this compassion. Compassion is, again, the main theme of the novel.

According to the game, however, Christine is a naive and waifish character who, as the characters are so eager to tell us, lies to Raoul and submits to the Phantom not to protect both of them, but because she wants to "change" Erik, and is too forgiving to stand up for herself. Her clever lies and omissions aren't her means of protecting herself and the man she loves, but instead they are spineless, and indicative of her "flawed" worldview: that anyone can redeem themselves and that everyone deserves compassion. (To be clear, this isn't my opinion on her actions--I personally think her actions in the majority of the game make sense--this interpretation is asserted by the characters themselves.)

This ties into the other reason why Melek exists: to facilitate Christine's character arc by telling her that those who do bad things can never do better, that good people are good and bad people are bad, and that those who hurt them deserve to die. As you can imagine, this "arc" is a downward spiral, in my book. Novel Christine was defined by her compassion, her greatest strength. She cared for all in the opera house, from the ballet corp to the stagehands to the costumers. She extended this care towards the one man who probably needed it most, and ultimately it saved quite literally everyone, including herself. MazM Christine however is defined by weakness, by her inability to stand up for herself even when it could endanger her, and her "growth" as a character is a slide into cruelty and apathy, one that not only is disappointing to watch, but is antithetical to the original novel's themes. (It also makes Erik a weaker character--he doesn't let her go because he loves her and wants her to be happy, but instead lets her go because...they bully him, I suppose? It seems that all Christine needed to do to escape him was to tell him off; this isn't my grandfather's Phantom. What happened to the Angel of Death, assassin for the Sultana?)

Melek and Christine's relationship is one that only serves Christine's development; Melek isn't made better by knowing Christine, other than being freed by her. Melek is a victim first and a person second, serving as damnation for Erik and as a rallying cause for Christine. And she's one of only three WOC in the entire game--and on that note, every WOC, that being Meg, Carlotta, and Melek, serves as a hype-man for Christine, encouraging and uplifting her without any encouragement or support in return. Out of them, only Meg has a character arc, and all three fall into uncomfortable stereotypes; Carlotta, who is Romani in the game, falls into a common caricature of black and brown women--she is dominant, aggressive, sexual (via her curves and large breasts, which she is the only character to exhibit), and mature, all counterpoint to Christine, who is waifish, thin, and young--Meg falls into a literary stereotype for black and brown women--she is the best friend, the cheerleader on the sidelines, with only a paltry attempt at her own character arc that is still centered around Christine--and Melek falls into a white savior fantasy with some ableism mixed in--she is helpless to the abuse of her not-husband Erik, and she is completely dependent on Christine, white and seeing, to plan and enact her rescue as well as finally stand up to Erik. (If there was a legitimate reason as to why Melek was incapable of the multiple escapes that Christine was able to enact, then I wouldn't have as much of a problem. Christine is able to escape into Erik's room and Melek's room from the Louis-Phillipe room, and all within her first day of being trapped there. Melek was there for ten years. What gives?)

In summary, Melek doesn't have agency or depth as a character, serving only to facilitate Erik's and Christine's characterizations, and Christine is a hollow mockery of her novel self; her character arc is antithetical to the novel's themes in every way. Speaking of Christine, that leads me to my third and final major complaint:

3. Raoul

When I was perusing sites like Tumblr to see what the general consensus on this game was, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was supposedly book-accurate and that Raoul was held accountable for his possessiveness, something never addressed in the novel.

These were lies.

I was promised a Raoul who realized his mistakes and made active strides to be a trusting, supportive partner to Christine. What I got was Erik 2.0 and a last minute "apology" that felt more like an ex-boyfriend swearing he'd changed, he went to therapy, he'd never do it again, than a legitimate recognition of his failings.

First of all, he is more novel-accurate than I'd like. By this I mean he is unbearable to watch. Raoul is the worst part of the original novel, and I don't say that lightly. In the game he is annoying, petulant, demanding, incompetent, and worst of all, all of these things while also being the endgame love interest. In the game these are inexcusable, while the novel at least has reasons for his awful characterization.

Let me clarify. The Phantom of the Opera is a mystery novel. Gaston Leroux was a prolific mystery author, and this novel is no different. Earlier I spoke of Erik and Christine's relationship being mostly undefined and hidden from the reader--this is because of the mystery surrounding who the Phantom was, the main mystery that needed to be solved by the end of the novel. Raoul is our main protagonist, though he is only one of several other narrators, those being Gaston Leroux himself, the two managers, and the Daroga. Because of his status as a mystery protagonist, he needed to be out of the loop as long as possible before discovering the truth, leading to a frustrating slog through Raoul's possessive internal monologue about Christine. The red herring that Leroux chooses to employ is simple: Raoul is absolutely certain that Christine is in a romantic affair with this "Erik" figure she speaks of, and he convinces himself that that is the reason why she won't accept his advances and is being so cryptic and distant with him. This is why he is so possessive over her to the point of jealous tantrums, because the plot needs him to not listen to Christine to stall his discovery of the Phantom's identity as long as possible. The Daroga comes in to expose the truth when they descend to the lair, and promptly his possessiveness goes away.

The game has no such need for this behavior. Not only do most people know that the Phantom and the Angel of Music are the same and are terrorizing Christine, but the game itself takes place partially from Christine's perspective, completely spoiling the mystery that necessitates Raoul's ridiculous behavior. The ALW musical had the right idea--to make him impulsive, but otherwise good-natured and completely trusting of Christine. This game however chooses to keep this jealousy for only god-knows why.

I, at first, assumed it was to make Erik a "dark mirror" for him--to make Raoul unlikable and to eventually have him see himself within Erik, and realize that he needs to either shape up or ship out. This would also explain the flattening of Erik's character, as a means to make Raoul a deeper character. But this didn't happen.

Instead I saw Raoul time and time again apologize to Christine, swear he'd changed, and then repeat those exact same mistakes again and again. Even after Erik had died and Raoul was offering Christine the train tickets at the literal end of the game, he was pressuring her, insisting on the course of action they "needed" to take, and offering no compromise, asking her to leave the country with him by the next Tuesday and leave behind everyone she'd ever known without any consideration to how she'd feel. He was still trying to control her, even after the supposed "character development" he'd had. The game tries to remedy this by having them recognize this failure and to have Raoul yet again make a promise to do better that the audience has no reason to believe. He has failed every other time to make improvements and to do better, but we're supposed to believe him this time? Why? Because she loves him and he loves her?

The concept of having Raoul be toxic at first and then learn from his mistakes is not a bad one, just one that was executed horribly here. He commits the same sins the antagonist does, the sins that earned that antagonist a death sentence, and he got to walk away with a hopefully-ever-after if you choose to leave him, and a happily-ever-after if you choose to go with him? All because of an apology we can't trust? He has none of the excuses the book Raoul does and all of the audacity. Christine's entire arc is about rejecting those who try to control her, but this sentiment is suspiciously absent whenever Raoul is involved. He is by far the most annoying and insufferable character in the game whose mere existence undermines the base themes of the game.

There are lots of little things too.

The managers are just as unbearable as Raoul, only they are minor characters and aren't literally deuteragonists. The choice to make them malicious is a strange one, as it is unnecessary and only serves to drag out the episode count. The novel's managers weren't like this, so there's no excuse. In ALW's musical, the managers were antagonistic alongside Carlotta to give the Phantom a reason to harass them, thus making him more heroic as well as making Christine more of an underdog. The choice here is completely unnecessary; it achieves nothing. They aren't more men telling Christine what to do, as she isn't part of the strike and never stands up against them, so they can't be serving the theme. They aren't making the Phantom look better, since he's a straight-up villain. Who's character arc do they serve? Raoul? He barely interacts with them after the initial complaints he tries to make against them. I suppose they're great if you like them--IF you like them. If you don't, then they are borderline painful to watch.

The Daroga's relationship with Erik is bad. The insistence by the narrative that they have a father-son dynamic instead of the friendly one they have in the novel is strange, especially because this is used to pass the blame for Erik's actions onto the Daroga. It's in conflict with what we've been told about Erik--is he responsible for his actions or not? Is the Daroga responsible or not? Is Erik a wayward child in a man's body with no understanding of right and wrong, or is he a sadistic torturer who delights in suffering and doesn't see value in morality? According to MazM, he's somehow both. He commits great sins and should be punished, but at the same time he doesn't know what sin is. How can he be condemned if he doesn't know what he's doing wrong? How can he be so delightfully cruel if he supposedly doesn't know what he's doing? How can the Daroga be blamed for "not teaching Erik properly" is he is only 6 years older than him and not responsible for another grown man? How can he be blamed for Erik's actions since they were not his own? How can he be blamed for not telling Erik that his relationship with the Shah was abusive when doing such a thing could get both of them killed--the Daroga for turning Erik against the Shah, and Erik for trying to leave? Is it not a little bit racist to make the Daroga, the only MOC, somehow responsible for Erik's bad behavior? These are all questions MazM happily ignores. The second most interesting relationship in the novel--the fraught, tense friendship between Erik and his peer, the Daroga--is spoiled in a way I really don't like. I personally loathe the removal of Erik's only equal, making all of his relationships have power imbalances.

I don't like the designs either. Erik's design is the best, and is my second-favorite Erik design ever under the musical design. Christine having magical-girl hair is just strange. I don't know why they introduced it. It makes no sense. Meg doesn't look like she's related to Madame Giry at all--no joke, I legitimately thought the game was going to reveal that she was actually Erik and Melek's child, and that that was why Erik foretold her rise to Empressdom, because it was favoritism. Before I played the game and had only seen the art, I thought that Melek was Madame Giry because of how similar they look. Moncharmin's design feels a bit...anti-semitic, with the hooked nose, and it irks me that Richard also has one; this wouldn't be an issue if Melek wasn't the only other character to have a hooked nose. Also, Moncharmin's design is just strangely unrealistic compared to the other designs. He's in a different art style to all the other characters and it throws me. The detective looks like a Black Butler character for no reason, and this would be fine if there were other characters that looked the same. But there aren't. He's the only one.

Jammes is airheaded in a bad way. She's charming to me, thankfully, but it's a bit much at times. Also, Jammes and Sorelli are their last names. Jammes' first name is Cecile.

The only character to have PTSD is the villain. Not Melek or the Daroga, not even Christine who was abused by her father. I mean, I knew that MazM's stance on PTSD was bad, but this is just icing on the cake.

This game is a drag. It really digs in its heels. The amount of time spent on every interaction is ridiculous. The fat desperately needed to be trimmed from this story; the novel wasn't even this long, and it's over 100 years old, archaic manuscripts loved purple prose. The parts that weren't explored in the novel that could have been explored to satisfaction--mainly Erik and Christine's relationship and their characters in general--weren't explored to satisfaction.

Okay, I'm done. I've gotten all the achievements, I've spent way too long thinking about this game, I'm calling it quits here. If you enjoyed this game, that's okay--you're allowed to enjoy things even if other people don't, or even if they're problematic or genuinely bad. I believe in the power of people to take in art critically and enjoy it while still understanding its problems.

Again, Jekyll and Hyde was very good, so I know that MazM is capable of producing good art. Part of me wonders if this wasn't an attempt to separate themselves from the other POTO adaptations, and it just went off the rails from there. I can't understand it. It's not like the Phantom won in the novel--he literally dies from possible heart failure (and maybe because of untreated wounds after Raoul shot him, but its never confirmed if it was Erik's eyes that Raoul saw in the night or just a street cat) and chooses not to seek medical attention or aid, probably because he sees himself as saved by Christine's compassion and has no desire to live any longer. This isn't a win by any means. This is a final act of goodness that he decides to die after committing. That doesn't scream victory lap to me.

Anyways. If anyone's reading this, go read the novel. It took way less time--about a third of the time, actually. Go watch the miniseries, its different in strange ways but is still enjoyable. The musical is the best adaptation; ALW was right when he said that Leroux didn't know what he had when he was writing POTO. The story is so much better as a gothic romance.

Alright. Thank you for reading.

#I wrote this for steam #and found out the hard way I couldn’t put this into a review #I had to put it somewhere #mazm phantom of the opera #mazm #erik poto #erik #erik phantom #Christine #Christine Daáe #raoul de chagny #raoul #Carlotta #Meg giry #jammes #sorelli #daroga #nadir khan #the phantom of the opera

98 notes · View notes

strangestcase · 1 year

Note

you're obvs super well versed on Jekyll and Hyde media - I've been trying to watch more films lately - do you have any personal favourite adaptations to recommend :0 sorry if this has already been asked!

OUGH

My personal favorite adaptations, and the ones I like recommending people, are:

-MazM Jekyll and Hyde. A visual novel that adapts the story perfectly missing very few minor beats only. Every scene is peppered with NPCs that explain the historical and cultural context behind the story, and deliver fun facts! Hyde’s design could be gnarlier but it conveys “uncanny valley” perfectly, so I can’t complain.

-Le testament du Docteur Cordelier, a 1952 French tv movie that sets the story in 1950s Paris. It seamlessly translates the story to the new setting and medium, and it’s pretty well acted. I’m personally a big fan of the final stretch of the movie, in which the last chapter of the novella is retold via flashbacks through a conversation between Utterson and Hyde. Fair warning for depictions of sexual assault and rape, some onscreen, though it’s not graphic and you can skip over those scenes.

-the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie isn’t adapting the Novella per se (it’s a loose adaptation of a comic in which Jekyll and Hyde are part of the main cast). It captures Jekyll and Hyde very well- maybe not perfectly but it’s surprisingly book accurate for a mostly brainless 2003 action film. The main strong point is that Jekyll is depicted as morally ambiguous and Hyde is given a personality beyond being evil, which again is surprising for a 2003 action movie!

-while I have yet to watch it fully, the 1931 live action movie by Rouben Mamoulian is considered the best Jekyll and Hyde adaptation. It roughly follows the plot of the 1887 Mansfield play (as a lot of Jekyll and Hyde adaptations do), and the special effects, soundtrack, and the Oscar-winning performance of Fredric March are its most noteworthy features. The movie was considered scandalous since it featured “steamy” scenes and pretty graphic depictions of abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual). It got a ”tamer” remake in 1941.

-the 1920 silent movie with John Barrymore, also based off the 1887 play, is free to watch on YouTube, as is the Burbank animated adaptation (that takes a few liberties but is absurdly funny). Check them out if you can!

23 notes · View notes

izunias-meme-hole · 1 year

Text

My Top 10 Favorite Movie Villains (Outdated)

Number 1. Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Star Wars) - In retrospective, Palpatine is easily the best villain in cinematic history. In the first two movies of the original trilogy, he never appears once, he’s only mentioned as “The Emperor,” and based off what we heard from Vader after he chopped Luke’s hand off, The Emperor sounds like a bigger and scarier dude than Vader. Then Return of The Jedi happens, and we see that he’s just a frail old man, yet he somehow manages to not only have Vader under his thumb, and based off what we see in the climax of the movie, it was primarily based off manipulation and not the force lightning he shoots out of his fingers. Then the Prequels happened, and The Clone Wars happened, which is honestly the exact moment that young me liked him more than Vader, and the moment current me rediscovered just how well written Palpatine is as a pure evil, card carrying dark lord, and as a politician. Sure he’s one of the strongest sith lords in the series, but that alone isn’t what makes him scary. It’s his careful planning, and the best part of it is that he rarely appears onscreen, yet his presence can be felt 24/7. I am not as much of a Star Wars fan as I used to be, but I will admit that I LOVE Sheev Palpatine and I’m not afraid to say it.

Number 2. Bowser (Super Mario Bros Movie) - Bowser here is as accurate to the source material as he’s always been, with one small tweak. He’s still goofy, intimidating, and a simp for Peach, but the biggest difference here is that this take on the Koopa King is much crueler than he is in canon, which makes sense because he ain’t a father yet. He casually kills his own koopas, intended to dunking his prisoners into a pit of lava during his ‘wedding’ with Peach as TRIBUTE to her (Bro that ain’t how that works!), threatened to DESTROY the Mushroom Kingdom if Peach didn’t marry him, and almost went through with it if it weren’t for Mario! Also Jack Black KILLED IT in this role! THIS is how a video game villain should be adapted into a movie.

Number 3. Green Goblin (Rami Spider-Man Trilogy) - The MCU can try all they want, but they ain’t surpassing Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. Norman Osborn here is pretty much portrayed accurately, despite being more pitiable in the trilogy. He’s a bad father, and the owner of a big time corporation, who’s more focused on securing his own success, that just so happens to view Peter Parker as a son. Then he drank an experimental super soldier formula, and got super strength and advanced agility at the cost of his sanity. Now he has two personalities, the “bad but not that bad” Norman Osborn, and the downright devious Green Goblin, who Norman is AFRAID of but also entranced by. The Goblin in these movies are honestly the best take on him to ever exist because he’s the perfect amount of dark due to his actions, fractured mental state, and every last word he speaks being so vile, but at the same time Gobby looks really ridiculous and is a meme machine. I also like the Jekyll and Hyde situation here, where instead of it being a “Normal guy”and his “impulses,” it’s a bad man and his own evil. What can I say other than best comic book movie villain ever.

Number 4. Death/The Wolf (Puss In Boots) - The best take on The Grim Reaper. Inevitable, terrifying, enigmatic, cruel to those who try and delay the inevitable, etc.

Number 5. The Riddler/Edward Nashton (The Batman 2023) - I expected Matt Reeves to make the Riddler an egotistical manchild of a serial killer with a Zodiac Killer design, a very high intellect, and saw style puzzles. I NEVER expected a catholic, terrorist, cult leader Riddler that looked up to a young and angry Year-Two Batman. EVERYTHING about him screams “The Lord will wipe these heathens away and Batman will help us,” yet at the same time it works so well. Sure, he has this whole chaotic cult leader vibe to him, but at his core, he’s still egotistical, he thinks he has all the answers, when in reality he’s just a pissbaby who’s lashing out at the world. Despite how different this take on Riddler is, Paul Dano and Matt Reeves did this character justice.

Number 6. Dr Robotnik (The Sonic Movies) - Jim Carrey’s traditional over-the-top nature works so well with Robotnik that it’s criminal. And the best part is that it doesn’t take away how much of a threat he is in the slightest!

Number 7. Sauron (Lord Of The Rings Trilogy) - Despite appearing in these movies as just a flaming eye, Sauron has a firm grip on the entire narrative through this flaming eye, and The One Ring. No matter where the main cast goes in Middle Earth, Sauron’s shadow is always looming. An accurate adaptation of Tolkien’s biggest evil.

Number 8. Judge Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) - One of the 3 Disney movie villains that I enjoy, and LOATHE. Frollo is a monster who sees himself as some pure and noble figure, and this is evident through his actions and beliefs alone. This guy tried killing a baby Quasimoto because of how hideous he was, and the only thing that stopped him was the fear of not being “pure,” so he raised the boy in the Notre Dame Cathedral’s bell tower and basically pretended to be his friend. Also lets not forget about his hatred of the Romani and the fact that he LUSTED over Esmeralda, while also hating her! BRUH YOU HAVE PROBLEMS! Well thankfully karma slaps him directly in the face as he dies falling into literal hellfire of his own creation, looking like a complete and utter devil. He was a great villain for the movie, but aside from that GOOD RIDDANCE YOU PIECE OF HUMAN GARBAGE.

Number 9. Colonel Muska (Castle In The Sky) - The only pure evil villain Hayato Miyazaki has written, and I can easily say that he sticks out in a way that a good villain should, while also being a huge steaming pile of shit.

Number 10. Koba (Planet of The Apes Trilogy) - Making a Bonbono a tragic, yet downright heinous villain is pure genius.

#emperor palpatine #sheev palpatine #darth sidious #bowser #green goblin #norman osborn #death #The wolf #the riddler #dr eggman #dr robotnik #sauron #claude frollo #colonel muska #koba #villains #ranking #(one behind the mask) Mun Izunia

9 notes · View notes

lemonadehtwooh · 11 months

Text

Lore about Fgo For Funsies AU Utterson:

and general design concepts and headcanons about him because <3 He's Babygirl. Warning for a super duper long read!

Originally he was a Caster Class but due to a suggestion from a friend, he ended up becoming an Archer class with a gun (the same friend also suggested what type of gun he thought was the "most gentlemanly" for the design). Utterson originally was designed to have a book/magic spells as a weapon instead, similar to Andersen, and would have been a support more than a damage dealer. Even now my headcanons for his skill set is based more on art-card support than buster damage (I headcanon his NP would as well be an art card)

Utterson's monocle represents "Looking through rose-tinted lenses", as Utterson's main flaw in the original novella is his blind faith in his friends, constantly believing in Jekyll and seeing the good in him despite Jekyll being very,,, Not Good. The poor man even loses sleep WORRYING about Jekyll TwT I love him. His monocle, curiosity, and deep love for his friends are the main components of his Noble Phantasm. The pearls connected to the chains are suppose to represent how he was more on the wealthy side in the novella

Utterson's main motives for how he acts is that he "wants to be a modern gentleman" and as well as he wants to help others

Utterson was originally going to be a grey monochromatic color scheme, however I thought it would be a lot funnier if he had a lot of purples and pinks. I like to think his first thought about what he is wearing would be "Oh dear!" and he would be shocked about all the color he wears. He eventually gets used to it, but it's very funny to imagine his surprise!

His Noble Phantasm is called "If he be Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek" due to his quote from the novella. This quote also is the inspiration for For Funsies Utterson's obsession with puns and jokes (which also ironically contrasts his serious nature)

Sherlock X Utterson had originally started off as a joke due to Sherlock's design being similar, but unfortunately I got really attached to the concept and actually started shipping it. I personally headcanon Sherlock as potentially being gay asexual in my AU. He as well figures out Utterson's feelings before Utterson realizes them and proceeds to just Watch and study Utterson because of this XD. They also share the same "detective" type motives (albeit, Utterson's is less prominent)

The idea for specifically pinks and purples being his main colors sprouted from the idea of Utterson having an "opposite" color scheme from Jekyll. The green accents are as well a reference towards Jekyll and the similarities he and Utterson shared in the novella. This is also why Lanyon's eyes are pink

I headcanon Utterson to know German and Latin. Potentially some Greek as well. He just has These Vibes (also he's a lawyer)

More about Sherlock and Utterson, their dynamic is something of Sherlock absolutely enjoying watching Utterson and Utterson being a flustered mess due to never experiencing romance (headcanon due to the fact that in the novella he's mentioned to be a bachelor). It's not like Sherlock doesn't participate in their relationship (in fact, in canon Fgo, Sherlock is pretty much pointed out to be a mischievous dude, therefore I believe he would definitely tease Utterson and make insinuations that cause Utterson to pause or perhaps even stammer), Sherlock just enjoys watching the dude and seeing how Utterson reacts. Basically he lowkey forces Utterson to take lead, which Utterson wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't so fluster-causing to him. Utterson also confesses in the most DRAMATIC way possible for such a modest man (to be fair, most of the situation wasn't in his control... But still XD)

I think I mentioned it in a post before, but in my AU, Utterson is rather terrible at socializing due to how intimidating he can come off as. He's trying REALLY hard. I also think his serious attitude doesn't help

instead of "Master", Utterson uses the terms: "My friend" or "dear friend". Romeo, his Master in my AU (who is also my OC), loves this

I don't think he would like modern music... except for potentially musicals. Also a reference to the novella

His bisexuality is also a lowkey reference to the novella because 🤨 bachelor? At 50? In that time period? Okay... 😏. This is also headcanoned into the AU that he sorta just repressed his attractions so much that he completely thinks everything he feels is platonic until he starts researching about relationships in the modern era. And then the realization that he has the fattest crush on Sherlock hits him like a sack of bricks in the middle of him reading. I imagine he would even drop his book in shock. He then proceeds to deny this obvious fact until Jekyll and Lanyon are like " D U D E . " I also headcanon he had a crush on Jekyll at some point but it had faded rather quickly and he brushed it off as he just was feeling those "platonic" emotions deeper than usual.

His grey streak in his hair represents how OLD he was in the novella. Same with Lanyon and Jekyll (I haven't posted my redesign of Jekyll with the grey hair added yet RIP)

Despite Lanyon's usual hugs, Utterson is still rather touch starved and represses himself from giving (and sometimes even receiving) physical affection. He sometimes gets emotional over Lanyon and Jekyll hugging him to the point he gets to the brink of tears thinking about it. This is later figured out completely once he starts dating Sherlock and slowly gets comfortable with touch (especially handholding), and this realization also hits him like a sack of bricks

I imagine if he was given Summer wear, aka a swimsuit, each ascension he keeps covering up due to embarrassment until he is wearing one of those full body, red and white striped swimsuits. His card art would be of him in the original outfit, but his avatar would be covered up. He's a modest man!

He has that Catholic guilt fr. it's obvious and doesn't really need to be said But. *Gestures at him* You can't tell me he doesn't.

#forfunsiesau #alternate universe #fgo #fate go #fate grand order #fgo fate grand order #original character #fate oc #character design #fgo headcanons #headcanon #design process #random

5 notes · View notes

gwaaaaar · 2 years

Text

So i found MazMs yellow bricks indiegogo page last night. Link is here!

and oh boy this is a good insight on MazM.

"MazM means “forming stories” and “bearing fruits” in Korean. Our vision is to bring timeless stories to life in the form of games, a vessel that enables unparalleled immersion and engagement. When written in the English alphabet, it looks like 'a' and 'z' are stuck in between books. This means that we are a team that covers everything 'from A to Z' when it comes to creating interactive experiences based on literary classics.

Yellow Bricks is just our first game in the series. Due to the amazing feedback we received from the community when we launched in Korea, we're able to confirm that development is currently underway of classics like 'Jekyll and Hyde' and 'The Little Prince"

Note that there is no mention of Phantom of the Opera. However, they said the Little Prince is underway, this means two things.

Either:

A. It got shelved and POTO replaced it, or

B. There are blueprints and plans but they just haven't released any yet.

There is also the fact that The Wizard of Oz and The Little Prince are children's books, or at least books children could enjoy. Phantom of the Opera and Jekyll and Hyde are gothic literature. The indiegogo to raise funds for Yellow Bricks' ENG release flopped dramatically. A mere 148/10,000 dollars :(

They must have assumed that the west didn't like the cuter style of yellow bricks and shifted genres/audiences with the release of Jekyll and Hyde. Once JNH succeeded they were more set on the darker visuals.

I also noticed in some of the screenshots and clips of Yellow Bricks that it seemed alot more interactive. Yes POTO and JNH had puzzles but it was more like an interactive book, but I guess thats the point. Still it was quite boring. Pechka had the 10 endings but overall it wasn't like, too riveting, interesting story though. It's an original work and I think they were trying to experiment.

But with the release of Hyde and Seek and Thy Creature (board/fighting game and bullet hell) I think they are going back to their roots. MazM is adapting and I'd love to see Yellow Bricks and their Little Prince game get their western release. Back then MazM was a niche group, but I think now they can raise funds. They have a loyal western fanbase, as small as it is.

They also seem to have a Japanese audience. In the website, Yellow Bricks was stated to have recieved a warm welcome in JP with a 4.9 star rating. There's also the JP Thy Creature account. MazM is spreading its roots, here's to hoping Thy Creature is a success! Really, tell all your friends about MazM if you can, they are a niche company and I've heard that lately they've been having money issues. Common theories I've heard is because of poor managing of marketing. The discord server is barely moderated. HNS was definitely released to make money for Thy Creature. They only started advertising after the game's release? Definitely tied to a lack of funding.

They've won awards, and I hope that means something

Edit: I found Growing Seeds Corps Crunchbase! Along with their website! And here's some information from it:

Note that Growing Seeds is MazMs affiliate/parent company afaik

It was established on Mar 15, 2013

2. "Growing Seeds Corporation is an independent app development company focused on developing early childhood education apps for its users.The company plans to monetize on the increased popularity of mobile devices by developing smart learning apps suitable for children. The company’s products include mobile games designed to cultivatemathematical skills in elementary students."

This may be an outdated bio, but it's certainly interesting and may prove my earlier theory that they changed audiences. On their official website, there's another kids game and Yellow Bricks on it. There was also a coming soon? Definitely abandoned website.

#MazM #mazm hyde and seek #mazm jekyll and hyde #mazm phantom of the opera #mazm thy creature #Mazm pechka

34 notes · View notes

reanimationstation · 1 year

Note

Do you have any headcanons for new batdr characters? (Audrey,toon Bendy etc?)

boy do i! admittedly i haven't rotated audrey as much as i shouldve since i played batdr but in my defense ive been thinking about ben

it got long so under the cut

audrey:

i think it'd be sweet if she started to regard henry as her other father. idk if anyone has ever told her that her dad def had a crush on him but i feel like she'd still find a good mentor in him. at least someone who will listen to her.

she keeps on seeing boris around the studio and really wants to meet him but hasnt had a good excuse to (she also wants to test out her theory that all borises like to be pet like tom was)

i think that in the new cycles/iterations she should be able to figure out how to change peoples designs. like how the lost ones got more details in batdr as opposed to batim? maybe give searchers the ability to talk and all that. legs even. just to improve quality of life down there

idk what the hell happened at the end of the game but im gonna choose to ignore how it seems like she betrayed the ink demon after he trusts her because :(

ben:

baby boy. baby

yes hes still the ink demon even post game dont look at me. i. look, im taking this as a (BOOK ACCURATE) jekyll and hyde situation. same person, he just acts differently based on what society expects of him. but he didnt want to be a monster, he was forced to become one because thats what his creator (joey) thought of him as (like frankenstein!). he contains multitudes

so post game, i think he can finally start to slowly put down those walls and act as a middle ground between both extremes. he can heal, he can learn how to trust again.

that being said i think he should still be able to transform into ink demon form if he felt like it. as a treat.

not a headcanon but i forgive him, personally. if you were treated like a monster your whole life wouldn't you be ANGRY? he's done nothing wrong besides all the atrocities

i have a lot of feelings about him as you can see

autistic. i will not be elaborating

betty:

i think she should unionize post game

she'd still be audrey's housekeeper cause she likes the work but she has dental now

has weekly tea with malice, allison, heidi, and an honorary porter (and audrey when shes there) to exchange gossip

keepers:

i want them dead

poor norman was probably dissected to be studied to make them

idk if they have human in them or if theyre purely mechanical but it's probably old gent workers

i usually respect mad scientists but i hate them so much

should be killable in game change my mind

porter:

i think he got the rope after allison gave him the advice to always carry rope

i like to think he's from the heavenly toys department... probably likes to tinker and make new toys

heidi:

queen

accidentally overhears a lot of gossip when shes hiding

wears a bow because she thought it looked cute on bendy and therefore she wanted one.

doesnt hate the ink demon because when he appears its just impromptu hide and seek (if you're caught you die :D!)

archie carter

i dont actually have any interesting headcanons for him but a really funny story is that i was with my friend while she was playing and we got to his log and we both were like wow he has such a nice voice tf fav background character?? and two days later i found out it was superhorrorbro mike and i was mortified because i WATCH his videos and i didn't recognize his voice 😭 it was so embarrassing

still my favorite new background character (who has a log)

wilson:

i also dont have any headcanons for him but i hate him and i hate that audrey was siding with him for some of the game even AFTER learning about how the keepers tortured ben and augh ill stop talking

#batdr #bendy and the dark revival #victors internal monologue #this got long! oops

7 notes · View notes

Last Seen Blogs

faeflowerz

Gladly, I Write

amtwst-tls

Twisted Wonderland Galore

90-s-kid

HESH - B

masberdi

Inspiring World

pinkmirrorus

Pinkmirror