Also I was gonna mention arcane for well written female characters (leads)... that show is INSANELY good. A fucking masterpiece, I dare say so. That is how you write female characters without having to shove all that woke stinky shit down the audience's throat, it's perfectly balanced. My fav characters there are jinx, ekko and Viktor and I’m eagerly waiting for the third season, even though it’s going to be more of a spin-off (or maybe a completely new show, but still connected to the original). This time, they’re focusing on Noxus, and I can’t wait. They’ve already introduced Katarina, Elise, and LeBlanc, and of course, my favorite top-lane character from the game, Darius. I’m so hyped to see how they’ll bring his story to life this time around.
First of all, sorry for such late response. I was in the middle of exams so I didn’t have time. Wanted to give this a proper attention so I waited to be done.
I agree with majority of things you said, however I think with all-male and all-female cast, there are some important things to take into consideration. Like 1. Why are they only one gender? Like if it’s prison then it makes total sense since prison is divided by gender. 2. I don’t think it’s a double standard, because I think it’s like a difference with “punching up” and “punching down” situations. All-male casts are a standard, all-female casts… honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen any? In any way, if it’s not specific setting that makes sense, then I think it should be balanced in both. Otherwise I consider that to just be bad writing. I can somewhat understand it if it’s a realistic setting and obviously, for majority cases, women are not as strong as men. However, how many of those manhwas are actually realistic? They aren’t, not at all. The issue is, that for vast majority of all-male cast it is simply that, bad writing. There are female characters, they are just horribly written. It doesn’t make sense for there to be no good female characters, because the setting isn’t either realistic or specific (like I said with prison). And this is a standard, not an exception, which is why I believe it should be criticized.
I totally agree about your second point! Good writing is a story that makes valid points without sounding preachy or shallow. I think the Barbie movie is a good example of that. I was very excited about it and had high expectations, I think the premise was very good, however the delivery… rather disappointing. I guess I’m glad it was made because a lot of people needed to hear those things, since I’ve heard them constantly it didn’t have that much impact on me. Writing just for me wasn’t the best quality. It reminded me of social media progressiveness and what people say on Twitter, from the directors previous works I just simply had higher expectations. It was an entertaining movie, but it definitely wasn’t outstanding to me.
I also fully agree with your third point. Even people who are a part of minorities do not like forced characters. You can really tell when it’s forced or just done for “diversity”. I think Arcane is the best example of progressiveness and representation done right.
I also appreciate your perspective! I like productive exchanges of arguments
ORV also can have a bit of a slower start tbh. It took me a little bit until I got sucked into it. Romance wise, I don’t care at all, actually I kind of dislike romance in action manhwas. When the protagonist is a woman, more often it feels more natural to me (though not always, sometimes it’s so forced too), but with stories when men are protagonists it 9 out 10 times just feels out of place. Like the female lead is not interesting, barely relevant to the story and it’s just a downer. Lack of female characters is more of the downer for me but I can bear with it. I did for most stories I read :’)
But I will say, I actually don’t really like the art style
Arcane is indeed an absolute masterpiece. Besides well-written characters, also their representation of disabilities (like you don’t even notice them most of the time, I realized Sevika not having an arm was a disability well after the show ended), sexualities, male vulnerability etc. It’s all just so insanely well executed. My favorites were Jinx, Vi and Ekko.
Also, the new shows won’t be spin-offs, they will be entirely different shows. However, I am so excited. I also seen that video and the characters seem so interesting. I will say though, especially the designs of women, I just know that show will have a strong grip on me.
I haven’t read it yet, just part with Na Hwajin (I’m down bad for him). So far, honestly weird. He actually IS usually the kind of guy who cares if someone did or didn’t kill someone, the person who tries to find out the truth and help actual victims. Whole TRPA is based on fixing criminals (in extreme ways), so what’s that talk that he doesn’t believe people can be fixed? They better give him a good reason cause so far it seems very out of character for him