I've loved The Breaker to no end back in the day, so when the final chapter hit, it hit hard. Like, I was floored. Devastated. The whole story just crumbled to pieces in front of me at the very last instance. As someone who really enjoys immersing myself, this was truly tragic for me. With that, I went into New Waves on a not-so-high note. And yet it still managed to disappoint me so badly, I stopped reading and restarted so many times now that I have actually written The Breaker off. To me, it ended with the 5th volume (the initial series). Then I heard there was a new Installment out - a Webtoon version this time. With a new protagonist (apparently, that's also not entirely true, but that's what it looked like at first glance). So I've weighed my options. I really want to like this story, and I want to see if he and Goomoonryong will ever make up. So yeah, after years of writing it off, I came back for the 30th time to start from the beginning and give it one last try. And since I never commented on this before, I will now start venting my anger; maybe this will make me keep reading.
So basically, I just started and immediately remembered why I hated this so much. But then they introduced a new character, which was the woman on the cover of the manwha, so yeah, I expected her to be important (to this day, I wouldn't know if she really is that important, but that's the message I got), and the very first appearance she makes is utterly unnecessary and unlikeable. A complete THOT. Just a "shoot her and get it over with"-type of character. Shi-Woon starts off saying he left the Murim, he's now a normal teenager, and he doesn't even have the will to really figure out where his teacher is. Fair enough, he was hurt after all. But then someone comes to him and tells him: "You're in Danger". I already hated the idea that his teacher was really so braindead; he would destroy his life of being a fighter because he really, somehow, believed that some ancient set of rules would keep people from targeting him. He, the nine-arts-dragon, who literally gives no shit about rules and hates them for being the way they are, which is not, in fact, always living according to the rules of their own society, somehow believed that taking away his disciple's only means of self-protection would somehow... protect him. Especially after even the story admits that it was the deeds of the nine-arts-dragon that weakened the Alliance's influence - the influence behind which he somehow intended to hide Shi-Woon. From the enemies that the nine-arts-dragon has, who would immediately go for him, who's now a free meal. I don't think I have ever seen a story make so much intrinsic sense, yet make no sense at all at the same time. The reasonable things are all there, and it all checks out, but the characters within the story, who should be able to deduce these things easily, are completely oblivious and act like a bunch of Walldorf School rejects. But it's somehow not supposed to be infuriatingly dumb? Anyway, so Shi-Woon gets warned about the danger and is like "Psssh, you're so funny, LMAO". Then someone completely unrelated comes in and tells him he's in danger. And Shi-Woon is like: "Psssh, did you talk to this other guy before? LMAO~" He even has the gall to say how weird it is that two people who are PART OF THE MURIM would show up and warn him, who LEFT THE MURIM and wouldn't know anything that's going on within it, that he's in danger. And despite his fucked up history in ANYTHING regarding the Murim, he's like: "Why would anybody target me~?" Bro, I've seen Koala's make better life choices.
I've loved The Breaker to no end back in the day, so when the final chapter hit, it hit hard. Like, I was floored. Devastated. The whole story just crumbled to pieces in front of me at the very last instance. As someone who really enjoys immersing myself, this was truly tragic for me.
With that, I went into New Waves on a not-so-high note. And yet it still managed to disappoint me so badly, I stopped reading and restarted so many times now that I have actually written The Breaker off. To me, it ended with the 5th volume (the initial series). Then I heard there was a new Installment out - a Webtoon version this time. With a new protagonist (apparently, that's also not entirely true, but that's what it looked like at first glance). So I've weighed my options. I really want to like this story, and I want to see if he and Goomoonryong will ever make up. So yeah, after years of writing it off, I came back for the 30th time to start from the beginning and give it one last try.
And since I never commented on this before, I will now start venting my anger; maybe this will make me keep reading.
So basically, I just started and immediately remembered why I hated this so much.
But then they introduced a new character, which was the woman on the cover of the manwha, so yeah, I expected her to be important (to this day, I wouldn't know if she really is that important, but that's the message I got), and the very first appearance she makes is utterly unnecessary and unlikeable. A complete THOT. Just a "shoot her and get it over with"-type of character.
Shi-Woon starts off saying he left the Murim, he's now a normal teenager, and he doesn't even have the will to really figure out where his teacher is. Fair enough, he was hurt after all. But then someone comes to him and tells him: "You're in Danger".
I already hated the idea that his teacher was really so braindead; he would destroy his life of being a fighter because he really, somehow, believed that some ancient set of rules would keep people from targeting him. He, the nine-arts-dragon, who literally gives no shit about rules and hates them for being the way they are, which is not, in fact, always living according to the rules of their own society, somehow believed that taking away his disciple's only means of self-protection would somehow... protect him. Especially after even the story admits that it was the deeds of the nine-arts-dragon that weakened the Alliance's influence - the influence behind which he somehow intended to hide Shi-Woon. From the enemies that the nine-arts-dragon has, who would immediately go for him, who's now a free meal.
I don't think I have ever seen a story make so much intrinsic sense, yet make no sense at all at the same time. The reasonable things are all there, and it all checks out, but the characters within the story, who should be able to deduce these things easily, are completely oblivious and act like a bunch of Walldorf School rejects. But it's somehow not supposed to be infuriatingly dumb?
Anyway, so Shi-Woon gets warned about the danger and is like "Psssh, you're so funny, LMAO". Then someone completely unrelated comes in and tells him he's in danger.
And Shi-Woon is like: "Psssh, did you talk to this other guy before? LMAO~"
He even has the gall to say how weird it is that two people who are PART OF THE MURIM would show up and warn him, who LEFT THE MURIM and wouldn't know anything that's going on within it, that he's in danger. And despite his fucked up history in ANYTHING regarding the Murim, he's like: "Why would anybody target me~?"
Bro, I've seen Koala's make better life choices.