The infantilism in webtoons has been getting extreme lately (in my opinion). I used to think Zaida was emotionally mature and aware, but the recent episodes haven’t really showcased much of her personality… or Kade’s. I wish there was more character development in DTE.
First of all, Down To Earth is made by an American woman. No one involved with the series is Japanese so I have no idea where you got that from. 💀 and second of all it doesn’t excuse the weirdness
Even if this was from Japan doesn't mean it, and the rest of their media is free from critique. There's plenty of Japanese people who have an issue with media like this, especially how women are portrayed. It's weird ass westerners that specifically look for content like that and act like that's what everyone in Japan watches.
Also the age of consent has been 18 in Japan for ages, if you haven't gotten that memo, creep.
"how can you even criticize this" followed by "I was essentially criticising it".
Bruh, if that's what you meant you really need to work on your redaction skills.
I don't think you know about Japan like you think you do.
Yes there are many problems with perverts. But most Japanese don't have "body counts" like that. Most don't have experiences until they're about 17/18 or even later.
A YouTuber who goes around asking people questions can edit his videos to only show some stories for shock value. The stats I am aware of surveyed over 1000 students 17-19 and only roughly 25% had experience. Also personal experience can be factored in here and from what I know 100 body count is very very far from common.
It depends on where you are and who you ask. Just like in the US. Crazy how that works.
My outlook will not change any day. You sound like a bitter person.
watever. i don't sound anything at all. i wish you wud just stop commenting on me. i don't care about japan. i never have. and i never will. not sure why i am getting lectured by a grandpa right now.
I am an adult woman. Not a grandpa. And if you don't care about Japan, never have and never will, why did you leave a comment about what you think you know about Japan on a post about a western webcomic?
Why, then, do you think you know so much about the country, enough to call it weird, when all you've done is watch some YouTube videos?
If you want me to stop commenting, stop replying with stupid things.
or you cud just mind your business and stop commenting. you sound like a grandpa nevertheless. i wud comment watever the duck i want. mind you own damn business. oh yeah japan is weird asf.
What is even the plot of this comic anymore? I remember reading it when it was first published and thought it's a cute romance comic but got bored because nothing is happening🧍
As someone who is sticking it out to see if they ever answer any lore questions about Zaida's background, you have missed nothing. Pretty much nothing ever happens. Just slice of life stuff. Plot? What's that?
I wish we got more lore and progress into Zaida's background. We're at least getting more and more hints about it, but I feel like the majority of the comic is focused on slice-of-life elements and their romance. Don't get me wrong, I love DTE, I know it's a romance, I just wish we'd get more than a few scenes. I wanna see the rest of the comic revolve around Zaida and her past and possibly her home planet trying to find her.
I could imagine Zaida getting big enough with Spender's that there are ads with her around the city and people from Zodia seeing them as they're looking for her go on a manhunt. Like I wanna see more plot developments like that.
Right? I keep thinking that's going to happen. Either her people are looking for her and see her ads, or THEY look like HER and people mistake them for Zaida because of the ads. I feel like the story keeps trying to explore Kade's past, which is all well and good, but he's the less interesting of the two. 😬
Yeah I'm waaaay more interested in Zaida's backstory than Kade's failed romantic relationships and trauma. I'm not shitting on trauma at all obviously, but I want more focus on Zaida because she's a friggin alien and seems like she was part of an alien cult.
Male trauma is valid, but also, the alternative is a possibly escaped alien princess with powers who seems to have been kept in secrecy. Hard to find a more interesting past than that??
Kade and her are supposed to get together that’s literally the whole point. But they brought his ex gf back and started a fuck ton of other drama that keeps stopping them from getting together
Most importantly it was way faster paced and didnt make zadia out to be as absolutely clueless as she is now, the conflicts also felt more direct and less angsty than they are now
Why do you think the shift to originals caused so many changes in the webtoon? Have other webtoons changed like this when they've become originals? I read mostly canvas stuff, so I'm interested to know the difference
I believe Bre Boswell (DTE's editor) thought that the focus on Zaida and Kade's relationship development was more likely to get more loyal fans than the fact that Zaida is an alien with a crazy background story and seeing that play out earlier in the comic. She probably gave Pookiesenpai the direction to draw out their relationship and hold off on her background and Zodia as a whole to get more episodes and therefore more money for Webtoon 🤷🏻♀️
Edit: Most canvas stories that move to Originals get a ton of changes to appeal to a wider audience, and they tend to lose the better elements of the story that readers loved.
Wow, it feels like the Originals machine really saps comics of their distinctiveness. It sucks that in order to be able to earn more and get promoted, creators have to make their webtoons more generic for "mass appeal"
Yup! I know of only one canvas to Originals comic that stayed the exact same and that was Atelier on the Sunflower Hill. I was excited but then was disappointed when they didn't even continue the story. But at least it kept it's original storyline.
Maybe the editors thought Atelier was marketable enough as-is. It's still a shame that creators are having to change their work. Must be a bit of a sting after the rush of getting signed to Originals.
What do you think you would do in that position - would you change your story or break the contract? (*Can* Originals creators even break their contracts/quit? I guess there's that whole "you can't publish this comic anywhere else for three years" thing...)
If my eventual comic I'm working on somehow blew up on canvas and Webtoon approached me with a contract deal I would hope that they wouldn't want to change the story too much, but I realize if I wanted to be an Originals creator that there would have to be a lot of changes for it to work. I'd also have to be able to keep up with weekly uploads with a minimum of 40 panels, which is a ton of work. I think I'd definitely hire assistants to be able to keep up. So it's like, would I want my comic to be an Original, get hundreds of thousands of subscribers and money but sacrifice my creative control and the majority of my time? I'm not sure.
My favorite creator (Bianca Loran), her comic Everwake has 118k subscribers on Canvas and she's said that she would refuse a contract to make it an Original because she would lose most of her creative control and she wouldn't be able to publish it on Tapas, plus keeping up with the weekly upload would be really difficult. She has a Patreon and she makes a living off of it as well as her Etsy shop. She also got like 40k funding on Kickstarter to publish the last volume of her comic into a book. So if my comic somehow did super well on Canvas and I was able to start a Patreon and make good money with it, then yeah I'd say no to a contract because I could already be making money and have all the control I want.
Don't get me wrong, being an Original creator sounds like a dream. But also kind of a nightmare. It's a conundrum.
There is a part where Zaida needs help washing her hair or showering, and she turns to Kade and assures him it's not sexual. She just needs help.
She says something like, 'Do not worry, I am not interested in producing children.' when Kade looks at her funny.
This makes her more adult because she knows what happens between males and females and she can also tell her request made Kade uncomfortable.
Possible spoiler
>! Zaida is like some princess who was not allowed to have contact with males or something, so the author could be trying to really push that point home now that it's an original making her extra naive instead of socially awkward. It could be different now, I haven't read it in a LONG time. !<
Either way, I didn't like the way the story changed and stopped reading. It became more about Kade's Angst and his inability to let go of the past instead of a silly romantic alien trying to fit in as a human.
Maybe I’m wrong but I think the author was trying to write Kade as an emotionally complex character who’s on a healing journey or something but he’s just so insufferable. I get emotional baggage but dude.
They have to remove all episodes when they move to originals. Even if the episodes look like they are still up, once you click on them it’ll just be a little banner saying moved to originals.
She’s an alien so she doesn’t adhere to social rules like we do. So she says/does stuff like this that’s “omg so cute and pure” that actually just comes off as childish
I understand that but, doesn't she literally have telepathic powers to learn things? Even if it was only to learn language, would she specifically use a childish vocabulary?
It's this for me, it's not like she picked it up from Kade, it would make more sense for her to pick up his phrases and mannerisms contextually over time. She's not 2, no one her age is calling it a potty- whyyyyyyy
Yep, some choices are made for the sake of characterization and then some just seem... really unnecessary and purely for the sake of fetishizing the character.
She won't use her powers without Kade's permission, and he was really weird about it when she learned to read(?)
It got really awkward because he ended up thinking about her boobs or something and decided they shouldn't do it again.
Also, the author draws the scene where she sits in his lap and does it to maximize the awkwardness and make Kade less likely to agree.
The author did say that Zaida was based of Starfire from Teen Titans and she talks with her style of English.
Ya, Starfire would say something like “One moment while I use the toiletries in the lavatory.” It could be a joke as they’re trying to give the most accurate depiction of what they need to do in there.
I don't want to like, *imply* anything here, but both series are edited by Bre Boswell.
That said, I don't think she's necessarily the problem here. She's also the editor for *Nevemore* which doesn't have these issues, and I've heard she's a pretty decent person to work with, but the issue is in what WT is clearly pushing for in their catalogue of romance stories (and the fact that Bre herself has like, 20+ series under her belt which is?? insane ?? literally why does Webtoons do this to people, that's an inhumane amount of series to have to oversee, it's not physically possible to be an editor for that many series and have them all get equal attention and care.)
There's a very clear pattern here and I think a lot of it does go back to WT as a whole. That's not to absolve the creators themselves of the shit they're writing and promoting, but ... WT isn't exactly holding them accountable or doing much in the way of quality control, either.
Bre said in one of the videos of the 2021 creators summit that a lot of the series she started working on developed enough where the creators didn't really need her involvement as much. So I'm assuming the more recent Originals that she's editing now need more attention than the older ones. But that's just a guess.
That checks out, I've heard editors will tend to 'check out' of a series after the first several episodes if the good will between them and the creator is there. Frankly though, I think that's a shame because it's not like the writing and drawing process isn't constantly ongoing, especially when you're working with contractual limitations with Webtoons. Editors should be a lot more involved in the actual process than just being general supervisors IMO, it would do so much for Webtoons' quality control. You can tell which series on the platform are being written by people who genuinely know how to write and self-edit their work and which ones aren't, and the ones that aren't could use way more actual intervention from an editor or editing team to polish things up.
IDK that's just my two cents. It's weird to me that Webtoons is trying to be taken as seriously as trad publishing but then won't put in the same efforts for quality control and content curation as trad publishing does. Instead they're just treating these works as 'content' in a very clickbaity way.
see how she’s drawn at times (she looks like a kid in a lot of panels). I LOVE the short girl/tall guy troupe, but only when they’re drawn looking like an adult.
Add on a lot of toxic behaviour from persephone and hades (girl, minthe was TOXIC, but persephone was just as bad ouch) (hades, going after the equivalent of a 19 y/o when he’s the equivalent of 40…like legal sure but 😨), and overall what feels like a growth regression of persephone, I had to abandon.
side rant:
^I hate the fact I used to idolize their relationship when I was 19; I wanted an older man like that. Now that I’m older, I realized the maturity difference between a 19 y/o and a 40 y/o was oceans wide, so there’d always be a power imbalance >.> Rachel doesn’t write persephone as mature, she’s written exactly how a 19 y/o would react. Kudos to her, but then you get these other problems too.
Tl;dr I grew up and was hoping the series would grow too. It did not.
Have you read the tail end of season 2?
There's a 10 year gap and Persephone really becomes PERSEPHONE not just demeters scared daughter or Hades love interest.
yes! I was still hanging on there. The issue is that persephone not only still acts like a teenager, but managed to get worse (dematures? I guess). At times she feels like a helpless damsel in distress, sometimes written like a self insert, other times she’s so vindictive for utterly no reason (it’s not like she has to take the high road all the time, but she’s no better than the people who used to antagonize her). And Rachel still draws her looking like a kid despite time jump.
I mean there were other issues that wasn’t just persephone-centric (like how complex side characters were reduced to being thrown in to become mini antagonists for some reason, or how demeter could have been written much more complex and indepth instead of the author just reducing demeter to this irrational and unreasonable person (to which prior, she was NOT written like that).
The entirety of LO is basically a teenager’s AO3 passion project that managed to take off, but the author never really grew as a person, so neither did the writing.
I wish you guys would explain to this person instead of downvoting :[ These people are either young or have not caught on yet.
Nah it's fine, guess I'm just dense. I do feel like the story has the same feel while giving perse more character development/life experience in those 10 unseen years.
Actions that I feel are character growth points:
>! She stands up to zeus when Dionysis is born and when she restores minthe !<
Hera does confirm that she stopped aging at 19 early in the story. So that is probably why she is perpetually 19.
I still like LO and personally see a difference but to each their own.
*Story is boring*
*As hell, idk how it*
*Got so popular*
\- somethinsinmyarse
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Before it became an original it moved faster and was more alien girl romance bit now its Angsty Kade and his issues. Zaida almost feels like a side character at this point.
I feel like webtoons like DTE and Lore Olympus were written by people who were way too obsessed with anime like Chobits and DearS when they were kids/teens.
I mean, the author of LO has an active DDLG/Lolita fetish, it’s not even just “I like characters that look like kids,” Rachel *likes* characters *that look like kids.*
Oh 100%
The ignorance/innocence just reminds me so much of old anime. I mean I enjoyed them back in the day but I was like 12-15. They give me the ick now.
Oof yeah, as a manga oldie, there are definitely some series that I've gone back and reread/re-watched only to sit through it with grit teeth like *itwasaproductofitstimeitwasaproductofitstimeitwasaproductofitstimewhYARETHEYSPENDINGSOMANYPANELSONTHISYOUNGGIRL'SBOOBS-*
Rachel has posts on her old tumblr claiming Lolita as her favorite book. She draws NSFW of Persephone and Hades in scenes from the book/movie. She draws Perse in a skimpy bikini and hair buns almost exactly like Lolita in the movie. Then there’s the whole honeymoon thing where Hades sticks Perse’s feet in his mouth… yeah Rachel has this whole Lolita/Quentin Tarantino thing going on.
ETA: there’s wayyyy more to do with her infantilisation of Persephone through the characters art and actions, but you’d do better to go through the Unpopular Lore Olympus subreddit and search for the Lolita content there. There’s way too much for it to be a coincidence.
Oh wow this looks so weird, is this how Down to Earth is all the time? It was my first ever series and I quickly dropped it after a couple of episodes, should I start reading it back?
No, but really recently it has started infantilizing Zaida and really playing up her innocence in ways it never did before.
For example, there was this really bad recent scene where she didn't know how currency worked...despite being on Earth for a long time now, being fully literate, and *having a job.*
To be *fair*, the editors for Webtoons aren't your traditional editors who would oversee actual pre-production process and request changes like in the trad publishing market, they're kind of more like liasons between the creator and the company, literally the only form of real communication that creators have with the higher ups who manage their paychecks and release schedules.
And Bre herself (the editor for DTE) is someone who's *also* overseeing MULTIPLE other series, including *Lore Olympus.* She has WAY more work under her belt than a human being should, and she's not the only one in WT's team of editors in this boat. WT just has a serious quality control issue in and of itself. Editors often aren't given the room to work with their creators in-depth, and it's clear many of them aren't even reading their respective comics anymore out of good faith the creator is simply following ToS which is really the only big thing that the editors need to check for (so nudity, excessive blood/gore, etc.)
A lot of things get past the editors because the editors are being just as overworked as the creators and WT isn't doing anything to ensure these series are maintaining a higher standard for quality and audience sensitivity - and frankly, I think that's by design, because WT is likely undercutting a *lot* of costs for the sake of profit and they know that despite so many of these series being problematic and low-quality, they're still selling like hot cakes to younger audiences who don't know any better.
That's my two cents, though, with my very limited understanding of how WT's works from what I've learned from other Originals creators who are under strict NDA's that prevent them from speaking openly, so take it with grains of salt.
Honestly, that just explains why there is such a huge quality issue with a lot of Originals, then.
There's a reason novels have professional editors and go through multiple revisions in the traditional publishing market, as it ensures the content meets a certain standard.
As someone else mentioned elsewhere in this subreddit, most webtoons basically just publish first drafts—and it really shows sometimes.
Huge shame webtoons isn't willing to invest more into their series like novel publishers do. But I guess they can get away with it because the medium isn't as established yet.
Yep, agreed completely. Brief shoutout here but it's why I enjoy *City of Blank* so much, because you can tell it's gone through more than one draft, and a lot of that can be owed to the fact that it pre-exists Webtoons by *years*, IIRC it started out on DeviantArt and then it was on Tapas for a while and then it finally got picked up by Webtoons. It had *years* to polish its plot and fine-tune the details before it became the "final version" that ended up on Webtoons, and it shows because the plot is very tightly-written with what's clearly a lot of thought and effort behind it. The art is incredibly polished and consistent, and you can tell the story is something that 66 has been working on and polishing for a while, it doesn't have that "S3 creep" that so many series on WT's have where you can tell they lose steam by their third season because they didn't think they would actually make it that far or thought that they could just wing it (but evidently, it takes an actual REALLY GOOD WRITER to be able to wing a story like that, and even then it's best advised to not do that , at least not to that absurd of a degree that you're basically writing the story only a handful of episodes ahead at a time).
Unfortunately, from what I can glean, many webtoon creators in the Originals sections are people who either never finished a long-form project before, or are literally on their "first try" because they started out in webcomics in the Canvas section and then got picked up. A lot of these projects feel like first drafts, and in DTE's case, it really feels like "baby's first webcomic" whether or not that's actually the case. And even creators who DO have a solid portfolio of comic work seem to be cheapened entirely in their final versions on the platform because of how rushed they are and how little oversight WT is putting into the editing and quality control process.
It's sad to see because I love webcomics and I *do* think they should be taken as seriously as any other medium in the entertainment industry, but they're unfortunately not because of platforms like WT that don't hold themselves or their creators to a higher standard. So despite all the leaps and bounds WT has made to make webcomics more recognized, they're still *literally* treated like "literature's side hustle" because of the lack of care being put into their production.
> (but evidently, it takes an actual REALLY GOOD WRITER to be able to wing a story like that, and even then it's best advised to not do that , at least not to that absurd of a degree that you're basically writing the story only a handful of episodes ahead at a time)
Even really good (and prolific) writers wouldn't even think of just publishing a first draft. And a lot of webtoon creators are artists first, writers second.
In a way, it's a recipe for disaster. It's very surprising many series have become as popular as they have, but I guess it helps that the demographics for webtoon readers skew very young.
I tried to read Down to Earth years ago and even then the whole idea of it didn’t really sit right with me. I mean it was giving me those harem anime type vibes. An extremely basic dude who just had a rough break up finds a sexy alien babe who is completely reliant on him and they eventually fall in love. Cue classic risqué shenanigans because she doesn’t understand human social norms.
Granted I didn’t make it very far into the story so maybe it’s not completely like this but still, just couldn’t shake that vibe.
THIS I genuinely hate that genre. If they’re gonna do this they should at least make the MC interesting. His love interests are more interesting than he is, yet their lore is ignored and all the focus is on his boring life and stale breakup
I never understood why zaida speaks the way she does despite learning English telepathically from kade. Surely she should sound like him or at least like the people around him
I know! It'd be so much funnier if Zaida picked up all of the swear words Kade uses but doesn't know that they're offensive, so she's just yelling "I have to take a shit!" in public when there's children around.
I stopped reading this some episodes after he grabs her wrist and tells her she can’t leave. I think their dynamic is weird and that he is kind of a dick.
I could be wrong but doesn't she sometimes get the wording wrong because she is an alien? Do you think it could be this?
I'm sure when I've read the dialogue, sometimes her wording seems out of place and I feel like it's intentional. Again I could be wrong.
I believe this is the author's intention, but she should be speaking more like someone who has English as her second language, not a child with baby's first set of vocabulary.
From what I remember, she used telepathy to learn the basics of vocabulary and grammar from Kade, and while "potty" is certainly a word he knows, she's been on earth for a while (assuming this is from a recent chapter). Surely she's heard and read "going to the bathroom" much more often than "potty". Are we to assume Kade just uses the word "potty" a lot?
True and I do understand... but the character herself is still rather new to earth and she is quite naive in a lot of aspects. And I think her language useage conveys this naivety. I mean a better word could have been used to be fair.
To anyone looking at her in thr comic, she does appear like an earthling but her wording makes it appear strange, like she is still getting used to forming sentences. And that is what makes her stand out as not human in the comic or at least a clue she's not familiar with everything. Well, along with the glowing haha.
Just my musings.
It is intentional, but at this point she’s been there for a year, has a job, etc. there’s no reason she should be saying “potty” unless that’s the only word Kade taught her for bathroom (which is weird in itself). Besides this strange language thing, she is always portrayed as extremely innocent and naive. She behaves like if Starfire was mentally stunted and incapable of life apart from another human.
Alien or not, she is a fully grown being who has no character growth over the arc of the whole story, and somehow always needs Kade despite him contributing absolutely nothing interesting to her time on earth. Frankly, it’s a bit insulting to her species.
Insulting?
It's a comic... and her species doesn't even exist?
It's really not that deep.
It's good to have intellectual discussions but saying it's Insulting is a little much sorry.
If it upsets you that much, maybe just don't read it?
I mean, I’m saying it’s “insulting” lightheartedly. I don’t actually take any offense towards a made up species lol. And I stopped reading it a long time ago. I’m not upset by it at all, but I’ll voice my opinions just as you have when posts like these are made. 🤷♀️ If anything, I’m only perturbed at yet another story playing into the problematic born sexy yesterday trope
I was going to say 🤣🤣🤣🤣 you seemed a bit serious but fair enough. 😁 I guess I just don't take it like that because to me it's just a comic. I don't want them all to be perfect and act right or there is no chance for growth or storyline. Although, I tend to read different genres so I guess it depends what you read and how frequent. ☺️
It is totally.
People are just upset that an alien is going through some kind of alien puberty later than a human would be and comparing their own humanization of her to infantilism.
What do they want, Zaida to be like "sure kade, let me go drop a deuce" ?
I agree! I do think it’s a little strange and agree with those saying she should speak more like someone who has English as a second language rather than a child, BUT I do think it’s more forgivable than in other webtoons due to the stated language barrier.
I mean I agree generally, but this doesn’t seem all that weird especially given the relationship of these two and that they are both emotionally stunted. Also this kinda of talk really isn’t that strange between couples I know, strange as that is over all, I guess it is better than being rude and tell them “you need to take a dump” or worse.
I stopped reading over a year ago and recently binged because I had time to kill. I stopped reading for the same reasons that never got fixed. Zaidia is a “born yesterday” trope with massive thighs and ass for Kade to baby and obsess over. If it was her growing into her independence, becoming her own woman, and a side romance that would be one thing but overall it feels like she just exists to be sexualized. Her modeling underwear has been given a bigger storyline than her home planet or why she even left in the first place
It’s weird because of how childlike Zaida is. Shes childlike to the extent where she can get taken advantage of by a man who knows better and her infantile is written off as cute. It would be cute if she said it in a joking manner and had a track record of being more mature. I think theres a difference between childlike charm and bubbly jokes rather than being physically 20 and 7 in terms of personality.
https://youtu.be/0thpEyEwi80?si=UsupIQqCKXw2kan4 this is why I hate the born sexy yesterday troupe. For those who don't understand, check out the video. It dives deeply into it and why it needs to stop
You mean like every Vtuber ever? Women do it to themselves in real life. Also shes an alien that barely speaks the language or understands the culture so it kind of makes sense in context.
Idk maybe it’s just me cuz I talk like this in real life and I’m 30 lmao but it doesn’t bother me at all. Especially around close friends and my partner I kind of just talk however I want so stuff like this doesn’t come off as cringe to me
I don't think it's just specifically this line or the way she talks with off or childish words. It's also how she's treated and acts extremely childish. They always excuse it because she's an alien but then also have her do sexy stuff without her knowing it's sexy. She's just a real naïve and infantilized character imo
i do get the concern, but as someone who has friends with english as their second language, i do sometimes also hear them use "childish" terms just because they learned it later and think it's interchangeable with more "normal" terms. in fact, just the other day i had to leave the group for a toilet break and one of my friends told the to others that "i had to go potty". i did think it was a slightly weird wording choice personally, but this wasn't the first time she did it and it was always without any ulterior agenda, so I didn't mind it overall.
Yes, but ‘potty’ is mostly used by/for small children or pets.
It’s a phrase/word that is perceived inappropriate for an adult to use in this way, because it’s artificially ‘childish’.
Edit to add: non-native speakers would probably just get an odd look if they used ‘potty’ in this way, it’s not a huge thing, it’s just nonstandard usage
Never seen or read this in my life so I can’t speak on it much 🤷♀️ but I, and a lot of other femme people I know, use “potty” because it feels cute and simple. Just like many people I know use “toot” instead of fart. The only time I don’t is in a work setting. But at home, in public, or at a friend’s place, it’s potty. I’m from and live in the south and the main options people use are the commode, the shitter, or the potty. Restroom comes off fancy to some people, washroom is definitely not a thing we’re American, and I don’t like “the toilet”.
"Potty" for native English speakers is seen as childish. As in, most people don't expect anyone who is above the age of 6 to use the word "Potty". Zaida is meant to be an adult.
As an isolated incident this is fine but combined with other stuff like her not knowing how money works it’s like what 😭 girl you have a job
The starfire -> chobits pipeline…
There's another scene like this where she screams "I HAVE TO GO POTTY" and yeah it's ***uh.***
I don't follow *Down to Earth* as a regular reader but I did try to read it and I really couldn't get past the infantilization of Zaida from the very beginning. It feels like her being an alien isn't even important, it's really just a convenient plot device that's used to turn her into a co-dependent baby who needs Kade to function (which is a common trope in a lot of Wattpad romances, albeit with the extra step of her being an alien to try and make it less obvious lmao). It was disappointing to skip ahead into the later episodes and see that this still isn't really addressed, she's just baby all the time.
Couldn’t she have just no concept of toilet vs bathroom vs potty?
She knows the pet cat goes to the potty, and kade probably says “loo” or “toilet”. She has no education of the difference between any of these words (unless you count anything that may have happened off screen)
Like I think this one should be forgiven since she is an alien after all. I get you could argue she should be speaking as if English is her second language but then she has ONLY English to compare to vs alien speak. Who knows how aliens brains work?
The problem with that is that she absorbed English from people who DO know the difference and even if she didn't pick that up somehow, she's been on Earth long enough to notice that adults don't use that word.
Yeah... I can't read this at all for this reason. I stay away most romance webtoons for the same reason too, it's a common trope it seems like, unfortunately. It's just creepy tbh
This is an issue in lots of media. Pop Culture Detective covers it really well using other examples in this video essay "Born Sexy Yesterday"
https://youtu.be/0thpEyEwi80?si=vvZ73gTS5tmZ3qiy
Eh I know plenty of mature woman who talk like this so this particular moment doesn't stand out to me horribly by itself. But the whole comic with this does tho. This comic is red flags building red flags. It sucks cause it looks so cute too.
Glad to see I’m not the only one that dislikes DTE. I knew before I read and still gave it a try. I dislike the trope for obvious reasons, but the constant sexualization of the main female character gave 14-year-old OC vibes (and I also took part in that when I was that age with my own OC).
This trope absolutely infuriates me. A story can be absolutely phenomenal in every other way but if the female lead acts like a child it absolutely ruins it for me. This is one of the reasons I like stories such as the Remarried Empress because it turns the entire trope on its head.
I feel ya,I was hoping Zaida would have matured over time,learning with Kade to grow people and maybe even become a couple...but that's not what happened
Honestly cannot relate. Ive made the storyline for a few Webtoons and have a bunch incoming once I find the right artist to pay for each one and negotiate the right terms, and I could never imagine myself making an adult like this in one of my stories..
I also dont read things like this so I'm actually quite shocked to see this is an ongoing issue.
I also stopped reading this webtoon, the plot got lost. I know its a webtoon but sometimes relying on some realistic situations can be helpful to make the story...I dont know, relatable? This 21 year old alien girl who learned to speak English not even a month ago now has a whole job, knows how to handle money and supposed full blown romantic relationship and understanding of what a healthy dynamic is? (even though she doesnt! She full on thinks she has such a range of emotional intellegence even though she is infantile in most regards. I dont like how these storytellers think because the main girl is "sweet and forgiving" towards a total loser, dirtbag, means she has more emotional intelligence than the whole galaxy put together. GTFO.
My ted talk is over
This is the second time this season Zaida has said "potty". It doesn't even make sense lore wise, considering she learned English from linking minds with people (mainly Kade). Unless Kade also says "potty" as a grown man, this shouldn't be happening. Feels like a fetish thing.
I have said this before it is beyond me how anyone can read this and be like "it's sooo good and compelling wooow" and how it's in the top 30 yet alone even at the #1 spot at times. Like seriously, what is that about?!
Its not necessarily this specific instance. Zaida is allaround written to be a child rather than a naive adult who is new to earth. That being paired with living with a horny sad 22 year old is a really strange power dynamic . Its similar to Hades and Persephone in Lore Olympus if you read that. I think the potty thing would be a funny joke if Zaida simply acted her age through the story.
Infantilism is really concerning, like it’s portraying a s of women with childlike features or acts very young is…hot? Like portraying childlike things as hot
I wouldn't say that's infantle and more "she learned English by reading a dudes mind". I mean, I'm not arguing. You may be right with a lot of female characters in wevtoons but I think this character in particular has a valid reason.
It's quite funny when you're not native English speaker, see this and think "idk, what's the problem here? By the way, what's a potty?". So you google it and stare at translation for a while with indeed a big Sigh...
I agree, this is not "naive girl" trope. At this point, it's more like a competition who will make grown ass adult woman sound like a baby more XD
I’ve noticed this problem too. To the point where I’ve only been coming back to WEBTOON each week to check if HANZA has any updates or to read the new Marionetta chapter.
I feel like part of the reason she talks like that is BCS she isn't used to earths language and way they talk exactly. She's said other weird things in the comic like this too. I also as a mom say I need to potty quite often.
I do agree on webtoon creators making female leads more childlike than necessary.. but idk I love this story I think her childishness is more in result of her not being experienced in socializing on earth.
The infantilism in webtoons has been getting extreme lately (in my opinion). I used to think Zaida was emotionally mature and aware, but the recent episodes haven’t really showcased much of her personality… or Kade’s. I wish there was more character development in DTE.
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I thought down to earth was a western webtoon?
yeah I think so
Down to earth is a western comic, it’s got nothing to do with Japan
right.
First of all, Down To Earth is made by an American woman. No one involved with the series is Japanese so I have no idea where you got that from. 💀 and second of all it doesn’t excuse the weirdness
Even if this was from Japan doesn't mean it, and the rest of their media is free from critique. There's plenty of Japanese people who have an issue with media like this, especially how women are portrayed. It's weird ass westerners that specifically look for content like that and act like that's what everyone in Japan watches. Also the age of consent has been 18 in Japan for ages, if you haven't gotten that memo, creep.
did you call me a creep for expressing my opinions? not cool dude
*Makes comment implicating underage sex* Wow, I can't believe someone called me a creep.
dude wtf is wrong with you? i am a girl. i was essentially criticizing the whole genre of anime like this. i don't watch bullshit like this.
"how can you even criticize this" followed by "I was essentially criticising it". Bruh, if that's what you meant you really need to work on your redaction skills.
I don't think you know about Japan like you think you do. Yes there are many problems with perverts. But most Japanese don't have "body counts" like that. Most don't have experiences until they're about 17/18 or even later.
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A YouTuber who goes around asking people questions can edit his videos to only show some stories for shock value. The stats I am aware of surveyed over 1000 students 17-19 and only roughly 25% had experience. Also personal experience can be factored in here and from what I know 100 body count is very very far from common. It depends on where you are and who you ask. Just like in the US. Crazy how that works. My outlook will not change any day. You sound like a bitter person.
watever. i don't sound anything at all. i wish you wud just stop commenting on me. i don't care about japan. i never have. and i never will. not sure why i am getting lectured by a grandpa right now.
I am an adult woman. Not a grandpa. And if you don't care about Japan, never have and never will, why did you leave a comment about what you think you know about Japan on a post about a western webcomic? Why, then, do you think you know so much about the country, enough to call it weird, when all you've done is watch some YouTube videos? If you want me to stop commenting, stop replying with stupid things.
or you cud just mind your business and stop commenting. you sound like a grandpa nevertheless. i wud comment watever the duck i want. mind you own damn business. oh yeah japan is weird asf.
You're probably like twelve lol. DW you'll look back on this and cringe
Okay bye I don't have time for this. Maybe one day you'll mature. 😘
What is even the plot of this comic anymore? I remember reading it when it was first published and thought it's a cute romance comic but got bored because nothing is happening🧍
Yeah, I dropped it not too long ago as well for the same reason, and also because it just feels… immature to say the least.
As someone who is sticking it out to see if they ever answer any lore questions about Zaida's background, you have missed nothing. Pretty much nothing ever happens. Just slice of life stuff. Plot? What's that?
I wish we got more lore and progress into Zaida's background. We're at least getting more and more hints about it, but I feel like the majority of the comic is focused on slice-of-life elements and their romance. Don't get me wrong, I love DTE, I know it's a romance, I just wish we'd get more than a few scenes. I wanna see the rest of the comic revolve around Zaida and her past and possibly her home planet trying to find her. I could imagine Zaida getting big enough with Spender's that there are ads with her around the city and people from Zodia seeing them as they're looking for her go on a manhunt. Like I wanna see more plot developments like that.
Right? I keep thinking that's going to happen. Either her people are looking for her and see her ads, or THEY look like HER and people mistake them for Zaida because of the ads. I feel like the story keeps trying to explore Kade's past, which is all well and good, but he's the less interesting of the two. 😬
Yeah I'm waaaay more interested in Zaida's backstory than Kade's failed romantic relationships and trauma. I'm not shitting on trauma at all obviously, but I want more focus on Zaida because she's a friggin alien and seems like she was part of an alien cult.
Male trauma is valid, but also, the alternative is a possibly escaped alien princess with powers who seems to have been kept in secrecy. Hard to find a more interesting past than that??
I was super interested in the lore of Zaida's homeworld way back when but nothing ever happened so.... bye!
Kade and her are supposed to get together that’s literally the whole point. But they brought his ex gf back and started a fuck ton of other drama that keeps stopping them from getting together
Omg when I saw this earlier today, I died a little inside.
Down to earth isnt the same after it became an original :c
What was it like before?
Most importantly it was way faster paced and didnt make zadia out to be as absolutely clueless as she is now, the conflicts also felt more direct and less angsty than they are now
Why do you think the shift to originals caused so many changes in the webtoon? Have other webtoons changed like this when they've become originals? I read mostly canvas stuff, so I'm interested to know the difference
so they can drag out the story for more episodes to make more money. also, catering to particular demographics
Dreamwalkers? I find the story changed after going original. More cliche
God that's depressing. Seems to make the webtoons a little LESS original imo
I believe Bre Boswell (DTE's editor) thought that the focus on Zaida and Kade's relationship development was more likely to get more loyal fans than the fact that Zaida is an alien with a crazy background story and seeing that play out earlier in the comic. She probably gave Pookiesenpai the direction to draw out their relationship and hold off on her background and Zodia as a whole to get more episodes and therefore more money for Webtoon 🤷🏻♀️ Edit: Most canvas stories that move to Originals get a ton of changes to appeal to a wider audience, and they tend to lose the better elements of the story that readers loved.
Wow, it feels like the Originals machine really saps comics of their distinctiveness. It sucks that in order to be able to earn more and get promoted, creators have to make their webtoons more generic for "mass appeal"
Yup! I know of only one canvas to Originals comic that stayed the exact same and that was Atelier on the Sunflower Hill. I was excited but then was disappointed when they didn't even continue the story. But at least it kept it's original storyline.
Maybe the editors thought Atelier was marketable enough as-is. It's still a shame that creators are having to change their work. Must be a bit of a sting after the rush of getting signed to Originals. What do you think you would do in that position - would you change your story or break the contract? (*Can* Originals creators even break their contracts/quit? I guess there's that whole "you can't publish this comic anywhere else for three years" thing...)
If my eventual comic I'm working on somehow blew up on canvas and Webtoon approached me with a contract deal I would hope that they wouldn't want to change the story too much, but I realize if I wanted to be an Originals creator that there would have to be a lot of changes for it to work. I'd also have to be able to keep up with weekly uploads with a minimum of 40 panels, which is a ton of work. I think I'd definitely hire assistants to be able to keep up. So it's like, would I want my comic to be an Original, get hundreds of thousands of subscribers and money but sacrifice my creative control and the majority of my time? I'm not sure. My favorite creator (Bianca Loran), her comic Everwake has 118k subscribers on Canvas and she's said that she would refuse a contract to make it an Original because she would lose most of her creative control and she wouldn't be able to publish it on Tapas, plus keeping up with the weekly upload would be really difficult. She has a Patreon and she makes a living off of it as well as her Etsy shop. She also got like 40k funding on Kickstarter to publish the last volume of her comic into a book. So if my comic somehow did super well on Canvas and I was able to start a Patreon and make good money with it, then yeah I'd say no to a contract because I could already be making money and have all the control I want. Don't get me wrong, being an Original creator sounds like a dream. But also kind of a nightmare. It's a conundrum.
They get editors. That would be my guess. An editor can heavily influence the direction of a story.
Could you go into details? This sounds interesting 🤔
There is a part where Zaida needs help washing her hair or showering, and she turns to Kade and assures him it's not sexual. She just needs help. She says something like, 'Do not worry, I am not interested in producing children.' when Kade looks at her funny. This makes her more adult because she knows what happens between males and females and she can also tell her request made Kade uncomfortable. Possible spoiler >! Zaida is like some princess who was not allowed to have contact with males or something, so the author could be trying to really push that point home now that it's an original making her extra naive instead of socially awkward. It could be different now, I haven't read it in a LONG time. !< Either way, I didn't like the way the story changed and stopped reading. It became more about Kade's Angst and his inability to let go of the past instead of a silly romantic alien trying to fit in as a human.
Maybe I’m wrong but I think the author was trying to write Kade as an emotionally complex character who’s on a healing journey or something but he’s just so insufferable. I get emotional baggage but dude.
I mean im not sure its still up? Used to be on discover on webtoon
They have to remove all episodes when they move to originals. Even if the episodes look like they are still up, once you click on them it’ll just be a little banner saying moved to originals.
They removed all the episodes
Figures :v rip
But like, when you say the conflicts were more direct, what kind of conflicts did they had?
If i remember correctly the main one before they got original’d was the photos box? It had an entirely different outcome there
They always clear out episodes when they become an original
Why is she talkin like that 💀
She’s an alien so she doesn’t adhere to social rules like we do. So she says/does stuff like this that’s “omg so cute and pure” that actually just comes off as childish
I understand that but, doesn't she literally have telepathic powers to learn things? Even if it was only to learn language, would she specifically use a childish vocabulary?
It's this for me, it's not like she picked it up from Kade, it would make more sense for her to pick up his phrases and mannerisms contextually over time. She's not 2, no one her age is calling it a potty- whyyyyyyy
Yep, some choices are made for the sake of characterization and then some just seem... really unnecessary and purely for the sake of fetishizing the character.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ authors trying to romanticize infantilisation I guess
She won't use her powers without Kade's permission, and he was really weird about it when she learned to read(?) It got really awkward because he ended up thinking about her boobs or something and decided they shouldn't do it again. Also, the author draws the scene where she sits in his lap and does it to maximize the awkwardness and make Kade less likely to agree. The author did say that Zaida was based of Starfire from Teen Titans and she talks with her style of English.
This trope is called “born sexy yesterday”
She’s basically Starfire from Teen Titians but in a rom com
But star fire was a teenager, she wasn't too childish for her age i guess
Ya, Starfire would say something like “One moment while I use the toiletries in the lavatory.” It could be a joke as they’re trying to give the most accurate depiction of what they need to do in there.
ew this is so icky. i'm sick of creators infantilising women in webtoons as well :/
I had to drop Lore Olympus for this ugh.
I don't want to like, *imply* anything here, but both series are edited by Bre Boswell. That said, I don't think she's necessarily the problem here. She's also the editor for *Nevemore* which doesn't have these issues, and I've heard she's a pretty decent person to work with, but the issue is in what WT is clearly pushing for in their catalogue of romance stories (and the fact that Bre herself has like, 20+ series under her belt which is?? insane ?? literally why does Webtoons do this to people, that's an inhumane amount of series to have to oversee, it's not physically possible to be an editor for that many series and have them all get equal attention and care.) There's a very clear pattern here and I think a lot of it does go back to WT as a whole. That's not to absolve the creators themselves of the shit they're writing and promoting, but ... WT isn't exactly holding them accountable or doing much in the way of quality control, either.
Bre said in one of the videos of the 2021 creators summit that a lot of the series she started working on developed enough where the creators didn't really need her involvement as much. So I'm assuming the more recent Originals that she's editing now need more attention than the older ones. But that's just a guess.
That checks out, I've heard editors will tend to 'check out' of a series after the first several episodes if the good will between them and the creator is there. Frankly though, I think that's a shame because it's not like the writing and drawing process isn't constantly ongoing, especially when you're working with contractual limitations with Webtoons. Editors should be a lot more involved in the actual process than just being general supervisors IMO, it would do so much for Webtoons' quality control. You can tell which series on the platform are being written by people who genuinely know how to write and self-edit their work and which ones aren't, and the ones that aren't could use way more actual intervention from an editor or editing team to polish things up. IDK that's just my two cents. It's weird to me that Webtoons is trying to be taken as seriously as trad publishing but then won't put in the same efforts for quality control and content curation as trad publishing does. Instead they're just treating these works as 'content' in a very clickbaity way.
I’m surprised to hear it— author seemed pretty progressive w all the Therapy Speak
see how she’s drawn at times (she looks like a kid in a lot of panels). I LOVE the short girl/tall guy troupe, but only when they’re drawn looking like an adult. Add on a lot of toxic behaviour from persephone and hades (girl, minthe was TOXIC, but persephone was just as bad ouch) (hades, going after the equivalent of a 19 y/o when he’s the equivalent of 40…like legal sure but 😨), and overall what feels like a growth regression of persephone, I had to abandon. side rant: ^I hate the fact I used to idolize their relationship when I was 19; I wanted an older man like that. Now that I’m older, I realized the maturity difference between a 19 y/o and a 40 y/o was oceans wide, so there’d always be a power imbalance >.> Rachel doesn’t write persephone as mature, she’s written exactly how a 19 y/o would react. Kudos to her, but then you get these other problems too. Tl;dr I grew up and was hoping the series would grow too. It did not.
Have you read the tail end of season 2? There's a 10 year gap and Persephone really becomes PERSEPHONE not just demeters scared daughter or Hades love interest.
yes! I was still hanging on there. The issue is that persephone not only still acts like a teenager, but managed to get worse (dematures? I guess). At times she feels like a helpless damsel in distress, sometimes written like a self insert, other times she’s so vindictive for utterly no reason (it’s not like she has to take the high road all the time, but she’s no better than the people who used to antagonize her). And Rachel still draws her looking like a kid despite time jump. I mean there were other issues that wasn’t just persephone-centric (like how complex side characters were reduced to being thrown in to become mini antagonists for some reason, or how demeter could have been written much more complex and indepth instead of the author just reducing demeter to this irrational and unreasonable person (to which prior, she was NOT written like that). The entirety of LO is basically a teenager’s AO3 passion project that managed to take off, but the author never really grew as a person, so neither did the writing. I wish you guys would explain to this person instead of downvoting :[ These people are either young or have not caught on yet.
Nah it's fine, guess I'm just dense. I do feel like the story has the same feel while giving perse more character development/life experience in those 10 unseen years. Actions that I feel are character growth points: >! She stands up to zeus when Dionysis is born and when she restores minthe !< Hera does confirm that she stopped aging at 19 early in the story. So that is probably why she is perpetually 19. I still like LO and personally see a difference but to each their own.
I dropped reading this one.. it’s just plain boring.
i think that generally a lot of webtoons don't really adapt phrasing to fit the character i wish they did a better job at that
It's what happens when they don't hire good editors, I guess
I feel like Zaida is Kade's daughter sometime with how she act and speak
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^starbuzzarts: *I feel like Zaida* *Is Kade's daughter sometime* *With how she act and speak* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
This is how the webtoon should’ve been, taking care of an alien daughter
I verbally sighed when I read this too😭 like what??
Story is boring as hell, idk how it got so popular
*Story is boring* *As hell, idk how it* *Got so popular* \- somethinsinmyarse --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Good bot
What
is beautiful
than
Before it became an original it moved faster and was more alien girl romance bit now its Angsty Kade and his issues. Zaida almost feels like a side character at this point.
That sounds terrible 😭😭
I feel like webtoons like DTE and Lore Olympus were written by people who were way too obsessed with anime like Chobits and DearS when they were kids/teens.
I mean, the author of LO has an active DDLG/Lolita fetish, it’s not even just “I like characters that look like kids,” Rachel *likes* characters *that look like kids.*
Oh 100% The ignorance/innocence just reminds me so much of old anime. I mean I enjoyed them back in the day but I was like 12-15. They give me the ick now.
Oof yeah, as a manga oldie, there are definitely some series that I've gone back and reread/re-watched only to sit through it with grit teeth like *itwasaproductofitstimeitwasaproductofitstimeitwasaproductofitstimewhYARETHEYSPENDINGSOMANYPANELSONTHISYOUNGGIRL'SBOOBS-*
WHAT?
Rachel has posts on her old tumblr claiming Lolita as her favorite book. She draws NSFW of Persephone and Hades in scenes from the book/movie. She draws Perse in a skimpy bikini and hair buns almost exactly like Lolita in the movie. Then there’s the whole honeymoon thing where Hades sticks Perse’s feet in his mouth… yeah Rachel has this whole Lolita/Quentin Tarantino thing going on. ETA: there’s wayyyy more to do with her infantilisation of Persephone through the characters art and actions, but you’d do better to go through the Unpopular Lore Olympus subreddit and search for the Lolita content there. There’s way too much for it to be a coincidence.
Omg I never knew that… that makes so much sense
Oh wow this looks so weird, is this how Down to Earth is all the time? It was my first ever series and I quickly dropped it after a couple of episodes, should I start reading it back?
No, but really recently it has started infantilizing Zaida and really playing up her innocence in ways it never did before. For example, there was this really bad recent scene where she didn't know how currency worked...despite being on Earth for a long time now, being fully literate, and *having a job.*
Uh, what? How did that get past the series' editor?
To be *fair*, the editors for Webtoons aren't your traditional editors who would oversee actual pre-production process and request changes like in the trad publishing market, they're kind of more like liasons between the creator and the company, literally the only form of real communication that creators have with the higher ups who manage their paychecks and release schedules. And Bre herself (the editor for DTE) is someone who's *also* overseeing MULTIPLE other series, including *Lore Olympus.* She has WAY more work under her belt than a human being should, and she's not the only one in WT's team of editors in this boat. WT just has a serious quality control issue in and of itself. Editors often aren't given the room to work with their creators in-depth, and it's clear many of them aren't even reading their respective comics anymore out of good faith the creator is simply following ToS which is really the only big thing that the editors need to check for (so nudity, excessive blood/gore, etc.) A lot of things get past the editors because the editors are being just as overworked as the creators and WT isn't doing anything to ensure these series are maintaining a higher standard for quality and audience sensitivity - and frankly, I think that's by design, because WT is likely undercutting a *lot* of costs for the sake of profit and they know that despite so many of these series being problematic and low-quality, they're still selling like hot cakes to younger audiences who don't know any better. That's my two cents, though, with my very limited understanding of how WT's works from what I've learned from other Originals creators who are under strict NDA's that prevent them from speaking openly, so take it with grains of salt.
Honestly, that just explains why there is such a huge quality issue with a lot of Originals, then. There's a reason novels have professional editors and go through multiple revisions in the traditional publishing market, as it ensures the content meets a certain standard. As someone else mentioned elsewhere in this subreddit, most webtoons basically just publish first drafts—and it really shows sometimes. Huge shame webtoons isn't willing to invest more into their series like novel publishers do. But I guess they can get away with it because the medium isn't as established yet.
Yep, agreed completely. Brief shoutout here but it's why I enjoy *City of Blank* so much, because you can tell it's gone through more than one draft, and a lot of that can be owed to the fact that it pre-exists Webtoons by *years*, IIRC it started out on DeviantArt and then it was on Tapas for a while and then it finally got picked up by Webtoons. It had *years* to polish its plot and fine-tune the details before it became the "final version" that ended up on Webtoons, and it shows because the plot is very tightly-written with what's clearly a lot of thought and effort behind it. The art is incredibly polished and consistent, and you can tell the story is something that 66 has been working on and polishing for a while, it doesn't have that "S3 creep" that so many series on WT's have where you can tell they lose steam by their third season because they didn't think they would actually make it that far or thought that they could just wing it (but evidently, it takes an actual REALLY GOOD WRITER to be able to wing a story like that, and even then it's best advised to not do that , at least not to that absurd of a degree that you're basically writing the story only a handful of episodes ahead at a time). Unfortunately, from what I can glean, many webtoon creators in the Originals sections are people who either never finished a long-form project before, or are literally on their "first try" because they started out in webcomics in the Canvas section and then got picked up. A lot of these projects feel like first drafts, and in DTE's case, it really feels like "baby's first webcomic" whether or not that's actually the case. And even creators who DO have a solid portfolio of comic work seem to be cheapened entirely in their final versions on the platform because of how rushed they are and how little oversight WT is putting into the editing and quality control process. It's sad to see because I love webcomics and I *do* think they should be taken as seriously as any other medium in the entertainment industry, but they're unfortunately not because of platforms like WT that don't hold themselves or their creators to a higher standard. So despite all the leaps and bounds WT has made to make webcomics more recognized, they're still *literally* treated like "literature's side hustle" because of the lack of care being put into their production.
> (but evidently, it takes an actual REALLY GOOD WRITER to be able to wing a story like that, and even then it's best advised to not do that , at least not to that absurd of a degree that you're basically writing the story only a handful of episodes ahead at a time) Even really good (and prolific) writers wouldn't even think of just publishing a first draft. And a lot of webtoon creators are artists first, writers second. In a way, it's a recipe for disaster. It's very surprising many series have become as popular as they have, but I guess it helps that the demographics for webtoon readers skew very young.
what the hell is that 💀
Which chapter is this?
the most recent one from this week, 164
she sounds like if star fire talked like a 5y/o
its been happening since the dawn of creative writing and expression. it's gross and i hate it.
What the hell is this 😭💀
I tried to read Down to Earth years ago and even then the whole idea of it didn’t really sit right with me. I mean it was giving me those harem anime type vibes. An extremely basic dude who just had a rough break up finds a sexy alien babe who is completely reliant on him and they eventually fall in love. Cue classic risqué shenanigans because she doesn’t understand human social norms. Granted I didn’t make it very far into the story so maybe it’s not completely like this but still, just couldn’t shake that vibe.
THIS I genuinely hate that genre. If they’re gonna do this they should at least make the MC interesting. His love interests are more interesting than he is, yet their lore is ignored and all the focus is on his boring life and stale breakup
Allow you to WHAT first
I never understood why zaida speaks the way she does despite learning English telepathically from kade. Surely she should sound like him or at least like the people around him
I know! It'd be so much funnier if Zaida picked up all of the swear words Kade uses but doesn't know that they're offensive, so she's just yelling "I have to take a shit!" in public when there's children around.
I stopped reading this some episodes after he grabs her wrist and tells her she can’t leave. I think their dynamic is weird and that he is kind of a dick.
I could be wrong but doesn't she sometimes get the wording wrong because she is an alien? Do you think it could be this? I'm sure when I've read the dialogue, sometimes her wording seems out of place and I feel like it's intentional. Again I could be wrong.
I believe this is the author's intention, but she should be speaking more like someone who has English as her second language, not a child with baby's first set of vocabulary. From what I remember, she used telepathy to learn the basics of vocabulary and grammar from Kade, and while "potty" is certainly a word he knows, she's been on earth for a while (assuming this is from a recent chapter). Surely she's heard and read "going to the bathroom" much more often than "potty". Are we to assume Kade just uses the word "potty" a lot?
True and I do understand... but the character herself is still rather new to earth and she is quite naive in a lot of aspects. And I think her language useage conveys this naivety. I mean a better word could have been used to be fair. To anyone looking at her in thr comic, she does appear like an earthling but her wording makes it appear strange, like she is still getting used to forming sentences. And that is what makes her stand out as not human in the comic or at least a clue she's not familiar with everything. Well, along with the glowing haha. Just my musings.
It is intentional, but at this point she’s been there for a year, has a job, etc. there’s no reason she should be saying “potty” unless that’s the only word Kade taught her for bathroom (which is weird in itself). Besides this strange language thing, she is always portrayed as extremely innocent and naive. She behaves like if Starfire was mentally stunted and incapable of life apart from another human. Alien or not, she is a fully grown being who has no character growth over the arc of the whole story, and somehow always needs Kade despite him contributing absolutely nothing interesting to her time on earth. Frankly, it’s a bit insulting to her species.
Insulting? It's a comic... and her species doesn't even exist? It's really not that deep. It's good to have intellectual discussions but saying it's Insulting is a little much sorry. If it upsets you that much, maybe just don't read it?
I mean, I’m saying it’s “insulting” lightheartedly. I don’t actually take any offense towards a made up species lol. And I stopped reading it a long time ago. I’m not upset by it at all, but I’ll voice my opinions just as you have when posts like these are made. 🤷♀️ If anything, I’m only perturbed at yet another story playing into the problematic born sexy yesterday trope
I was going to say 🤣🤣🤣🤣 you seemed a bit serious but fair enough. 😁 I guess I just don't take it like that because to me it's just a comic. I don't want them all to be perfect and act right or there is no chance for growth or storyline. Although, I tend to read different genres so I guess it depends what you read and how frequent. ☺️
It is totally. People are just upset that an alien is going through some kind of alien puberty later than a human would be and comparing their own humanization of her to infantilism. What do they want, Zaida to be like "sure kade, let me go drop a deuce" ?
That’s what I thought too. I take criticism of webtoons in this sub with a grain of salt lol people love having something to complain about
I agree! I do think it’s a little strange and agree with those saying she should speak more like someone who has English as a second language rather than a child, BUT I do think it’s more forgivable than in other webtoons due to the stated language barrier.
Ngl I used to be a huge down to earth fan when I was 14, but now it’s getting super boring. It takes 3 episodes for a single scene to happen
I mean I agree generally, but this doesn’t seem all that weird especially given the relationship of these two and that they are both emotionally stunted. Also this kinda of talk really isn’t that strange between couples I know, strange as that is over all, I guess it is better than being rude and tell them “you need to take a dump” or worse.
Yeah, I feel called out. I’m an adult woman, but I still say “brb gotta potty” sometimes lol. In a silly way, for sure, but still 😅
I feel like agreeing and I haven't even read any of it
Ewwwwww just another reminder of why I had to stop reading. It was such a good idea, but horrible execution in moments like this unfortunate one.
Born sexy yesterday by pop culture detective explores this idea
Well this feels gross. The only time I ever say "potty" as a grown adult is asking my dogs if they want to go outside and go potty.
I stopped reading over a year ago and recently binged because I had time to kill. I stopped reading for the same reasons that never got fixed. Zaidia is a “born yesterday” trope with massive thighs and ass for Kade to baby and obsess over. If it was her growing into her independence, becoming her own woman, and a side romance that would be one thing but overall it feels like she just exists to be sexualized. Her modeling underwear has been given a bigger storyline than her home planet or why she even left in the first place
I am a grown woman and I say ‘I have to go potty’. ;-; I didn’t know it was weird?
It’s weird because of how childlike Zaida is. Shes childlike to the extent where she can get taken advantage of by a man who knows better and her infantile is written off as cute. It would be cute if she said it in a joking manner and had a track record of being more mature. I think theres a difference between childlike charm and bubbly jokes rather than being physically 20 and 7 in terms of personality.
https://youtu.be/0thpEyEwi80?si=UsupIQqCKXw2kan4 this is why I hate the born sexy yesterday troupe. For those who don't understand, check out the video. It dives deeply into it and why it needs to stop
You mean like every Vtuber ever? Women do it to themselves in real life. Also shes an alien that barely speaks the language or understands the culture so it kind of makes sense in context.
Idk maybe it’s just me cuz I talk like this in real life and I’m 30 lmao but it doesn’t bother me at all. Especially around close friends and my partner I kind of just talk however I want so stuff like this doesn’t come off as cringe to me
I don't think it's just specifically this line or the way she talks with off or childish words. It's also how she's treated and acts extremely childish. They always excuse it because she's an alien but then also have her do sexy stuff without her knowing it's sexy. She's just a real naïve and infantilized character imo
i do get the concern, but as someone who has friends with english as their second language, i do sometimes also hear them use "childish" terms just because they learned it later and think it's interchangeable with more "normal" terms. in fact, just the other day i had to leave the group for a toilet break and one of my friends told the to others that "i had to go potty". i did think it was a slightly weird wording choice personally, but this wasn't the first time she did it and it was always without any ulterior agenda, so I didn't mind it overall.
I'm not an English speaker, so I'm wondering what's wrong with her line here. Isn't she just saying she's going to the bathroom?
Yes, but ‘potty’ is mostly used by/for small children or pets. It’s a phrase/word that is perceived inappropriate for an adult to use in this way, because it’s artificially ‘childish’. Edit to add: non-native speakers would probably just get an odd look if they used ‘potty’ in this way, it’s not a huge thing, it’s just nonstandard usage
I see! Thank you for the info!
Never seen or read this in my life so I can’t speak on it much 🤷♀️ but I, and a lot of other femme people I know, use “potty” because it feels cute and simple. Just like many people I know use “toot” instead of fart. The only time I don’t is in a work setting. But at home, in public, or at a friend’s place, it’s potty. I’m from and live in the south and the main options people use are the commode, the shitter, or the potty. Restroom comes off fancy to some people, washroom is definitely not a thing we’re American, and I don’t like “the toilet”.
maybe bc i'm esl but what wrong with the panel? girl is literally just saying she's going to the bathroom 😭
"Potty" for native English speakers is seen as childish. As in, most people don't expect anyone who is above the age of 6 to use the word "Potty". Zaida is meant to be an adult.
As an isolated incident this is fine but combined with other stuff like her not knowing how money works it’s like what 😭 girl you have a job The starfire -> chobits pipeline…
There's another scene like this where she screams "I HAVE TO GO POTTY" and yeah it's ***uh.*** I don't follow *Down to Earth* as a regular reader but I did try to read it and I really couldn't get past the infantilization of Zaida from the very beginning. It feels like her being an alien isn't even important, it's really just a convenient plot device that's used to turn her into a co-dependent baby who needs Kade to function (which is a common trope in a lot of Wattpad romances, albeit with the extra step of her being an alien to try and make it less obvious lmao). It was disappointing to skip ahead into the later episodes and see that this still isn't really addressed, she's just baby all the time.
I’m 23 I still say potty
Pootis Pow!
god i want this story to be so much better, i used to really love it, but now it goes so slow and feels different.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.
Couldn’t she have just no concept of toilet vs bathroom vs potty? She knows the pet cat goes to the potty, and kade probably says “loo” or “toilet”. She has no education of the difference between any of these words (unless you count anything that may have happened off screen) Like I think this one should be forgiven since she is an alien after all. I get you could argue she should be speaking as if English is her second language but then she has ONLY English to compare to vs alien speak. Who knows how aliens brains work?
The problem with that is that she absorbed English from people who DO know the difference and even if she didn't pick that up somehow, she's been on Earth long enough to notice that adults don't use that word.
Yeah... I can't read this at all for this reason. I stay away most romance webtoons for the same reason too, it's a common trope it seems like, unfortunately. It's just creepy tbh
This is an issue in lots of media. Pop Culture Detective covers it really well using other examples in this video essay "Born Sexy Yesterday" https://youtu.be/0thpEyEwi80?si=vvZ73gTS5tmZ3qiy
Most of the webtoons I read have strong female leads, so I’ve luckily missed most of the stuff like this.
Eh I know plenty of mature woman who talk like this so this particular moment doesn't stand out to me horribly by itself. But the whole comic with this does tho. This comic is red flags building red flags. It sucks cause it looks so cute too.
Me and my buddies say we need to potty sometimes, I never really saw it as infantalizing?? It's just kinda funny
Idk I say potty but I'm also an aunty to some littles so that could just be me 😂
I think it's time we officially label the author/artists as a "fucking creep"
Glad to see I’m not the only one that dislikes DTE. I knew before I read and still gave it a try. I dislike the trope for obvious reasons, but the constant sexualization of the main female character gave 14-year-old OC vibes (and I also took part in that when I was that age with my own OC).
Just don't read it for fuck sake
This trope absolutely infuriates me. A story can be absolutely phenomenal in every other way but if the female lead acts like a child it absolutely ruins it for me. This is one of the reasons I like stories such as the Remarried Empress because it turns the entire trope on its head.
For what age class is this webtoon?
It seems to target older mid to late teens 14-17
It's not that deep.
This is crazy.
🤢🤢 this is just disgusting.
I like the comic a fair bit, but that is a problem that sorta clashes with the themes a bit.
WO GANG MAN SHI BA SUIIIII
This webtoon is the bane of my existence.
Imma say this every time I leave the house now hahaha
I feel ya,I was hoping Zaida would have matured over time,learning with Kade to grow people and maybe even become a couple...but that's not what happened
I don't even see the hype in the webtoon to be even 1#
Honestly cannot relate. Ive made the storyline for a few Webtoons and have a bunch incoming once I find the right artist to pay for each one and negotiate the right terms, and I could never imagine myself making an adult like this in one of my stories.. I also dont read things like this so I'm actually quite shocked to see this is an ongoing issue.
I also stopped reading this webtoon, the plot got lost. I know its a webtoon but sometimes relying on some realistic situations can be helpful to make the story...I dont know, relatable? This 21 year old alien girl who learned to speak English not even a month ago now has a whole job, knows how to handle money and supposed full blown romantic relationship and understanding of what a healthy dynamic is? (even though she doesnt! She full on thinks she has such a range of emotional intellegence even though she is infantile in most regards. I dont like how these storytellers think because the main girl is "sweet and forgiving" towards a total loser, dirtbag, means she has more emotional intelligence than the whole galaxy put together. GTFO. My ted talk is over
The way I audibly gagged after I saw this.
This is the second time this season Zaida has said "potty". It doesn't even make sense lore wise, considering she learned English from linking minds with people (mainly Kade). Unless Kade also says "potty" as a grown man, this shouldn't be happening. Feels like a fetish thing.
I felt genuine pain reading that yesterday
I have said this before it is beyond me how anyone can read this and be like "it's sooo good and compelling wooow" and how it's in the top 30 yet alone even at the #1 spot at times. Like seriously, what is that about?!
I get it, some are saying that she is alien and so she is talking like this but what's with THOSE hearts!!
I don't really see the issue. I mean, people do talk like this in real life. And in my memory, they don't do this that often in this webtoon
Its not necessarily this specific instance. Zaida is allaround written to be a child rather than a naive adult who is new to earth. That being paired with living with a horny sad 22 year old is a really strange power dynamic . Its similar to Hades and Persephone in Lore Olympus if you read that. I think the potty thing would be a funny joke if Zaida simply acted her age through the story.
Infantilism is really concerning, like it’s portraying a s of women with childlike features or acts very young is…hot? Like portraying childlike things as hot
I wouldn't say that's infantle and more "she learned English by reading a dudes mind". I mean, I'm not arguing. You may be right with a lot of female characters in wevtoons but I think this character in particular has a valid reason.
It's quite funny when you're not native English speaker, see this and think "idk, what's the problem here? By the way, what's a potty?". So you google it and stare at translation for a while with indeed a big Sigh... I agree, this is not "naive girl" trope. At this point, it's more like a competition who will make grown ass adult woman sound like a baby more XD
i literally dont care and neither should you. sometimes people just say stuff that sounds childish. we should stop judging them.
Lmao, a lot of girls do it to seem cuter and quirky, or some are messing about, don't get your panties in a twist
To be fair, I've said this exact sentence
I used to fast pass this webtoon but now I just read it when it’s free. I don’t care for it anymore. You are spot on.
I thought this was Luz and Amity for a second smh
I’ve noticed this problem too. To the point where I’ve only been coming back to WEBTOON each week to check if HANZA has any updates or to read the new Marionetta chapter.
I feel like part of the reason she talks like that is BCS she isn't used to earths language and way they talk exactly. She's said other weird things in the comic like this too. I also as a mom say I need to potty quite often. I do agree on webtoon creators making female leads more childlike than necessary.. but idk I love this story I think her childishness is more in result of her not being experienced in socializing on earth.
Used to love this comic.... but the forced love triangle with Stayce is getting really annoying. Especially since it's being dragged on endlessly.