Well I was going to give my two cents, but Halmoni happened with the Korean perspective to boot. I have to second the sentiment that there's nothing unrealistic about Seol-a or "off" about the way her character has been developed. You can be socially astute but naive at the same time, as can be the case with Seol-a. To be fair to her character, It's necessary to look at how her its been structured to this point.

Seol-a grew up with three older brothers. Do you really think those brothers weren't overprotective of their baby sister and didn't constantly try to prepare her for how dangerous their gender can be (hence the bat in her apartment)? Seol-a is constantly being wooed by a potential male suitor wherever she goes as well, and she's had a few passionless flings. That being the case, I think it's safe to say she has some experience in how to deal with men, although she is still a little naive and that's what got her in trouble with her violent ex.

But what about other women? Seol-a has been burned by them her entire life and she has never ever had a close female friend that wasn't just trying to exploit her or waiting to stab her in the back. Seol-a is brilliant in handling men, obviously possesses great intellect and knows how to carry herself in social outings, but she has zero experience in having genuine relationships with other females, platonic; romantic or otherwise.

Given what we know about her past, I think her interactions with No-rae are very believable. It's a two pronged situation here. Not only is No-rae providing Seol-a with her first real experience in female companionship, but No-rae is also Seol-a's first love (she's admittedly never fallen in love to this point and we all know she's head over heels for No-rae); that is a lot for her to navigate on her own and she has nobody to confide in...other than No-rae. The only other female she bragged to No-rae about in chapter ten or eleven only made Seol-a paranoid, depressed and jealous over No-rae..which is further evidence of how female companionship in general is uncharted territory.

I think she, like No-rae, has been very well written. No-rae is the only female to really penetrate past "Seol-a the Idol" and uncover "Seola, the person." And it doesn't hurt that Seol-a thinks she's the cutest thing ever and obsesses over her lips while trying to blame it on the booze.

Oops, I guess I still gave my two cents. Oh well. Good discussion.

Aww. I'm touched by you people. #defendseol-raeatallcost! or else you'll piss

the captain of our ship !

P.S.: I love the url of that pic: CeqELSA.jpg?1
where in e=mc^2, c stands for speed of light, and my golly ELSA's on this ship too? LOL

PPS: @halmoni: if you're gay for Seol-a's mom, I could say I'm gayer for No-rae's sister, Kim Geu-rim xxD
I have lots of headcanon with her meeting Seol-a for the first time....

palakangorange:

PPS: @halmoni: if you're gay for Seol-a's mom, I could say I'm gayer for No-rae's sister, Kim Geu-rim xxD
I have lots of headcanon with her meeting Seol-a for the first time....

Speaking of Seol-a's mom (because the best sentences always start with "speaking of ...'s mom"),
funny how nobody has yet mentioned Seol-a's mom from her appearance in chapter 27.

Now, we know where Seol-a gets her looks from.
She doesn't sorta look like her mom; she looks exactly like her mom.

 
Seol-a for comparison:

last edited at May 4, 2015 7:19PM

anonymous:

Now, we know where Seol-a gets her looks from.
She doesn't sorta look like her mom; she looks exactly like her mom.

(http://imgur.com/QeskEIk)

 
Seol-a for comparison:

(http://imgur.com/z62okX6)

I always wonder how old is her mom after making her appearance. ( •ั็ _ •็ั )

PPS: @halmoni: if you're gay for Seol-a's mom, I could say I'm gayer for No-rae's sister, Kim Geu-rim xxD
I have lots of headcanon with her meeting Seol-a for the first time....

The real question is who isn't gay for Seol-a's mom?

Trick question because I'm pretty sure everyone is

D'awww, cute... I have awakened the army of Seol-a's supporters. I get walls of text to explain me how wrong I am to not "believe" in Seol-a... （；¬＿¬)

I will gladly admit my ignorance of Korean culture. I'm more familiar with American/European (and to some extent Japanese) culture, so I probably have a skewed take on this.

The real question is who isn't gay for Seol-a's mom?

Trick question because I'm pretty sure everyone is

I'm not! I'm so much into No-Rae :P
I actually really like how Ssamba drew Seol-a and her mom so similar yet so noticeably different in age. She's a really great artist!

D'awww, cute... I have awakened the army of Seol-a's supporters. I get walls of text to explain me how wrong I am to not "believe" in Seol-a... （；¬＿¬)

More like you were pushin one line of thought and everyone else showed you that there are other ways to look at her character ;)

I will gladly admit my ignorance of Korean culture. I'm more familiar with American/European (and to some extent Japanese) culture, so I probably have a skewed take on this.

I 2nd your ignorance of Korean culture and that extent about Japanese culture. That is why I've held off on judging No-rae and Soel-a for becoming romantically attracted to a woman. As far as I can tell, the story has not even scratched the surface of Korea's culture except for what I am TOTALLY ASSUMING is its university culture. For example, are older generations more conservative than younger generations when it comes to a lot of things and like No-rae/Soel-a/Ji-hwan's generation is more open to same-sex couples and all that? There are a lot of questions that I have about how this story fits into Korean culture (somebody briefly answered this pages ago but it'd be nice to hear more about it again). In Japanese yuri we constantly read about how same-sex couples have to mostly keep their relationships on the DL for fear of being ostracized by everyone (friends, family, coworkers, etc.) whereas this is my and many others first foray into Korean yuri and, we just don't know how it all fits together in the grand scheme of things. This is why I've held off on claiming that No-rae is confused that she's in love with a woman like many others have assumed. There just isn't enough information to make that judgement yet though I'm sure we'll find out in the next 3 chapters or so (just a guesstimate lol).

Koreans are avid readers of japanese manga (as are Chinese), that at least I know. They started to make their own (manhwa), and got really good at it. Some probably made the trip back to Japan and got translated there.

FF is full of japanese manga references in the way it's drawn, even if the story and background are unique, so I'm confident the author knows all the tropes of the genre. But the Korean culture additions are a nice exotic touch.

As for how same-sex couples are viewed in the Korean society, I have a hunch it's even more conservative than Japan in that respect, but that the younger generation are more open. Don't quote me on that though.

Koreans are avid readers of japanese manga (as are Chinese), that at least I know. They started to make their own (manhwa), and got really good at it. Some probably made the trip back to Japan and got translated there.

FF is full of japanese manga references in the way it's drawn, even if the story and background are unique, so I'm confident the author knows all the tropes of the genre. But the Korean culture additions are a nice exotic touch.

As for how same-sex couples are viewed in the Korean society, I have a hunch it's even more conservative than Japan in that respect, but that the younger generation are more open. Don't quote me on that though.

Manhwa/Manhua/Manga all have different origins despite their similarities, and they've all influenced each other throughout the course of history. There's really no point in comparing the three, since the content heavily depends on the author, not the stereotypical tropes in a genre. Like Ssamba (the author) said, they don't care about whether FF is labeled as yuri/GL/lesbian/queer; all they want to do is tell the pure story of our two protagonists. So tropes aren't really relevant to FF (and I personally haven't seen many typical yuri tropes in FF so far; that's one of the reasons why people like it). FF is not a Japanese yuri manga clone with an exotic hint of Korean. It's a Korean manhwa with its own unique story.

I don't wanna sound like a dick, but I do laugh a bit when people compare Korea/Japan, and talk about how Koreans are imitating the Japanese. I'm not going to go too deep into the details, but Korea was occupied by Japan for nearly half a century (early 1900's to 1940 something, I don't remember the exact years) when Japan went on its imperial raid of Asia during WW2. Everything related to Korean culture was forbidden: art, literature, language, etc., and the Japanese attempted to replace our culture with theirs. Anything "Korean" was considered to be second-class/trash/illegal or "below" the level of the Japanese. That's why Korea and Japan have a lot of similarities in their modern cultures today, and it's one of the reasons why quite a few Koreans still hold animosity towards the Japanese (mainly the government, not the people).

And yes, of course Korea is conservative about homosexuality. Most people choose to stay in the closet, since revealing your sexuality can have a lot of adverse effects (lose your job, lose your friends, etc.).

... Korea was occupied by Japan for nearly half a century (early 1900's to 1940 something, I don't remember the exact years) when Japan went on its imperial raid of Asia during WW2. Everything related to Korean culture was forbidden: art, literature, language, etc., and the Japanese attempted to replace our culture with theirs. Anything "Korean" was considered to be second-class/trash/illegal or "below" the level of the Japanese. That's why Korea and Japan have a lot of similarities in their modern cultures today, and it's one of the reasons why quite a few Koreans still hold animosity towards the Japanese (mainly the government, not the people).

I kind of remember my Histo prof (2 yrs ago) mentioned that there are instances in Asian cultural conferences and the like, wherein by the time Koreans present their culture, others [Chinese] would simply be like:

(China basically goes back to ancient history as to how Korea was under their imperial rule. Brief overview
But to quote that article: Tying modern nations to ancient predecessors can be a messy business, but historians generally concur in describing the Goguryeo state as proto-Korean.

and yeah, Japan also lay their claim on Korea. Bottom line: East Asian politics)

And yes, of course Korea is conservative about homosexuality. Most people choose to stay in the closet, since revealing your sexuality can have a lot of adverse effects (lose your job, lose your friends, etc.).

I just recently watched Daughters of Club Bilitis (the only(?) Korean [mini-]1-hrdrama by a national channel [KBS] bravely focusing on lesbian relationships I guess. T'was nice drama, catchy harem song Mambo No.5 I wish to be sung by a woman)

@ Halmoni

Thank you for the explanation.

Japan was unceremoniously booted out of the Korean peninsula in 1945 when Russia supported the US in a push on Japan to try and put a final end to the war. Russia beat the ever living hell outta what remained of the Japanese military on the peninsula. However, didn't really know about what Japan was doing on the Korean Peninsula, that's pretty crazy.

And yes, of course Korea is conservative about homosexuality. Most people choose to stay in the closet, since revealing your sexuality can have a lot of adverse effects (lose your job, lose your friends, etc.).

Yikes! Is this through all generations or just the older ones?

Yikes! Is this through all generations or just the older ones?

I know that a lot of older generation Koreans deeeefinitely don't like homosexuality. Like the really old people might even go as far as to claim that homosexuality was a "western disease" brought over by foreigners, or just flat out deny that Korean people can be gay.

I haven't had as much direct experience with the younger generation, but I think they're for sure more open-minded about it. Probably similar to younger generations in most other developed East Asian countries. The only thing is that Korea still doesn't have anti-discrimination laws for homosexuals, so stuff like firing people for being gay isn't illegal.

last edited at Apr 3, 2015 2:34AM

I can't really relate. My country has strong anti-discrimination laws, and we even got same-sex civil marriage, with the exact same benefits than het couples. I won't say it went smoothly, or that everyone agreed to it, because the haters are always louder, but the silent majority couldn't care less if two girls or two guys tie the knot. Surveys shows that people usually think that if two person love each other, they should be able to marry, even if they are the same gender. Whether they can raise/adopt children is a sore issue though. People, even though homosexuality is accepted to some extent, have a really hard time accepting that two women or two men can raise a mentally healthy child just like anyone.

As for comparing Korea and Japan, it was not really my intention. I understand it's quite sensitive, given past history, so I have no right to give my two-cents about something I know next to jack-shit about.

Yikes! Is this through all generations or just the older ones?

I know that a lot of older generation Koreans deeeefinitely don't like homosexuality. Like the really old people might even go as far as to claim that homosexuality was a "western disease" brought over by foreigners, or just flat out deny that Korean people can be gay.

Wow.... words do not express....

I haven't had as much direct experience with the younger generation, but I think they're for sure more open-minded about it. Probably similar to younger generations in most other developed East Asian countries. The only thing is that Korea still doesn't have anti-discrimination laws for homosexuals, so stuff like firing people for being gay isn't illegal.

Well, hopefully so! since that means a more tolerant and open society :)

Also halmoni, I went looking at the Google Drive and noticed a "Special 2" folder was created. Is the next release another special or is that just a place holder for whenever another special is released?

last edited at Apr 4, 2015 6:48AM

Yikes! Is this through all generations or just the older ones?

I know that a lot of older generation Koreans deeeefinitely don't like homosexuality. Like the really old people might even go as far as to claim that homosexuality was a "western disease" brought over by foreigners, or just flat out deny that Korean people can be gay.

Wow.... words do not express....

It's hardly a Korean-only thing. Even here in North America there are a lot of people who think homosexuality comes from outside forces such as liberals, the "gay agenda", people from California, etc. Since they didn't see it when they were young (due to gays being closeted and it being dangerous to be out), it didn't happen and therefore must be a new thing from somewhere else.

It's horrible, but pretty common. Even more so in more insular areas that already have a distrust of outside influences.

Oh I am very much aware of it here in the US. I attended a religious high school (Evangelical Christian) here in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and, they regularly preached about how being gay was a sin against god and you were automatically destined for hell. No ifs, ands, or buts. The hypocrisy was and is amazing. Seriously, Jesus was like a patch to make the Old Testament and the religion more...... flexible and yet they conveniently forget him and his teachings ALL of the time. (That sentence is almost line for line one of the things the school actually told us.)

Thanks to the internet, I quickly found out they were a load of bull. Shame so many groups seem to think along the same lines when the Bible has four books dedicated to preaching the exact opposite by the man their religion is named after! Facepalm

Ironically, it was a Bible teacher in 8th grade, who talked about the sins of being a homosexual, that opened my eyes up lol. I had a rough idea of how sex between two men worked (being a guy myself I could figure it out) but when he mentioned lesbian sex, that was a first and I had no idea how it would work between two women. So, I started researching that very night and now here I am XD...

^ Relevant

^ Relevant

His dad was kind of a dick though, but he mellowed out a lot after he had kids.

Also halmoni, I went looking at the Google Drive and noticed a "Special 2" folder was created. Is the next release another special or is that just a place holder for whenever another special is released?

QCO probably has her own way of organizing things, but I'm guessing Special 1 is going to contain the Chuseok Special from a while ago, and Special 2 will contain Ssamba's Q&A.

Oh I am very much aware of it here in the US. I attended a religious high school (Evangelical Christian) here in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and, they regularly preached about how being gay was a sin against god and you were automatically destined for hell. No ifs, ands, or buts.

A religious school preaching against homosexuality in one of the gayest areas in the U.S.? That's so ironic lol.

Also halmoni, I went looking at the Google Drive and noticed a "Special 2" folder was created. Is the next release another special or is that just a place holder for whenever another special is released?

QCO probably has her own way of organizing things, but I'm guessing Special 1 is going to contain the Chuseok Special from a while ago, and Special 2 will contain Ssamba's Q&A.

Oh okay. I wasn't quite sure. And is that the Q&A we just read in the special or another one she did?

Oh I am very much aware of it here in the US. I attended a religious high school (Evangelical Christian) here in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and, they regularly preached about how being gay was a sin against god and you were automatically destined for hell. No ifs, ands, or buts.

A religious school preaching against homosexuality in one of the gayest areas in the U.S.? That's so ironic lol.

I know right?! The irony was definitely never lost on us haha. Their arguments are a wet napkin, very easy to poke holes in ;)

Hmm is Fluttering Feelings on break this week? [Not to imply that I'm stalking the manhwa, but...] It's usually out by an hour ago (11 pm Sunday Korean time), or so I thought.

I hope not! I've been waiting for this chapter for 2 weeks now!!!!

Hmm is Fluttering Feelings on break this week? [Not to imply that I'm stalking the manhwa, but...] It's usually out by an hour ago (11 pm Sunday Korean time), or so I thought.

I signed up for Dynasty just to reply ha! Yes I'm on this side of the earth, and it's usually out by this time. And yes I stalk this manhwa every Sunday night to brighten up the Blue Monday Workday syndrome.

ann:

I signed up for Dynasty just to reply ha! Yes I'm on this side of the earth, and it's usually out by this time. And yes I stalk this manhwa every Sunday night to brighten up the Blue Monday Workday syndrome.

Haha thank you!! It's appreciated. It's nice to know I'm not crazy. [Heh, Blue Monday is a nice way to refer to it.]

I can't concentrate on anything until I find out if there's going to be a chapter or not today. ;-;

jellyfrapp:

I hope not! I've been waiting for this chapter for 2 weeks now!!!!

YES. I agree. ugh. Although the special pleased me more than I thought it would (satiating the soul lol)

last edited at Apr 5, 2015 12:22PM