manhwa: 13th Boy +Fringe

[meganbmoore]

As of yesterday, I am current-ish (through vol 5-there may be more now) with the manhwa 13th Boy.  All I have to say (aside from "Yay!  Girl-bonding!  Weird girl-bonding, but who's complaining?") is that this has every standard shoujo RomCom trope ever (with a bonus talking cactus named Beatrice that turns into a bishounen during the full moon) and yet, it obeys absolutely none  of the rules a decade of shoujo reading has taught me.  I keep thinking I know where it's going, and then I don't!  I have no idea how this will end or what will happen next, which isa very refreshing change of pace.

I've also watching through the end of season  2 of Fringe.  As far as I know, everyone reading this post is actually further along than me.  If not, you might want to skip the rest.  There are things I like a lot and some things I don't (Uhm...mostly Walter.  And how he treats Astrid a lot of the time.  And how basically everything is his fault-and I'm not really convinced that he regrets any of it-even though I'm sure the writers are expecting us to sympathize with him.) and I...need to watch some of season 3 before I really can get into this, but while I kind of adore the alternate universe and all more than the main universe, maybe)  I...am really bugged by how the tretment of it kinda...smacks of colonialism.  I mean, think about it:

Party A invades the homeland of Party B.  Party A steals from Party B, and causes irreparable damage to its homeland.  Party A knew this would happen when Party A invaded Party B's homeland.  Party B figures out what happened and creates defenses.  Eventually, Party B, believing Party A is an enemy out to destroy Party B (and why would Party B think otherwise?) opts for infiltration and retaliation.

Party A and Party A's allies are the protagonists.  Party B is the villain.

I really really hope things don't go down the way I fear they will in season 3.