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I've mentioned this before, but I am a big fan of web comics. This started way back in highschool when would read translated Japanese manga online. That quickly shifted to include manhwa (Korean comics) and web comics both international and in English. A popular message company, Line, started their version of a web comic app called Webtoon years ago. I actually used Line heavily when I was in college (instead of normal text messaging), even more so when I studied abroad in Japan. Since then, I always try to check webtoon every once in a while to see what's new and binge any new "episodes" released for stories I follow. There are some that check it every week when notified of a new release, but I like to wait a bit and then have more than one to read. When I was looking through the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo, one of the prompts is graphic novel. I expanded this to count manga, manhwa and web comics. I didn't want to be too easy though and and just read a shorter episode. Main story lines are referred to as seasons, so I wanted to read an entire season as my graphic novel. Going through my subscribed list, I wanted a web comic that had a complete season but also one I hadn't read too much of. I saw that recently The Remarried Empress had their season finale and I had only read the first 15 chapters. I knew that was the one I wanted to go with. I was also able to apply it to my Summer of Swoon board 2 to cover the prompt yellow on the cover.
The Remarried Empress I knew was translated from Korean as I had seen some gorgeous art. What I didn't know until looking into it for this post is it is actually pulled from a web novel. I have tried a web novels before and think it's cool that it has several iterations. According to goodreads, the original version is on volume 6 already. We have some catching up to do! The story is written by Alphatart and the illustrator is Sumpul. If you haven't tried web comics before, I couldn't recommend Line's Webtoons more. I've read from other web comic apps, but a lot of them have most of the comics behind pay walls. Webtoon is the best option if you want to stay as a free reader. They do have a coin system if you'd like to spend money to unlock future episodes (called fast pass) and other perks. They also have events from time to time to win coins as well.
This is a fantasy, historical romance that is super slow burn. The artwork is absolutely stunning. Our main character is Empress Navier. The first chapter is her at her divorce trial with Emperor Sovieshu. She say's that she approves the divorce if she's allowed to get remarried. Then we get the reveal that her future husband would be King Heinrey. Then we cut back to the beginning of when things started to change. Sovieshu had an affair with a slave girl named Rashta and she became pregnant. He has brought her to the palace as his mistress. At this point Sovieshu and Navier had been unable to conceive, so it's a big deal for him to finally have an heir. So starts the crazy policital and magic filled story of end of Navier and Sovieshu's relatioship and her start with Heinrey.
I love this series. It's a little more on the politics side of things for me, but since it has a historical feel I'm able to almost set it aside. There's also magic here and it also gives off a fantasy feel as well. I absolutely adore Navier. I think she could be a little more open emotionally with Sovieshu, but at this point in the story it would feel almost too little too late. She also doesn't things with the betterment of her constiuants in mind. It hurts that Sovieshu thinks the worse of her instead of looking at her actual motiviations behind her actions. And even if she is jealous or a hurt lover, she should be. I loathe Rashta and hate her duplicitious nature. If you go through the comments at all, people have dubbed her "trashta." Like I mentioned above, this is definitely a slow burn. We see Navier come to develop feelings for Heinrey, but it's almost like she doesn't actually know or understand what it is. She's was raised to be empress to Sovishu and that's all she's known. It's her identity and who she is. Seeing her come out of her shell and start to be herself around Heinrey is so sweet. I also love the dichotemy of Heinry being a complete cinamon roll for Navier, but a King in his own right.
I can't wait for season 2 and definitely enjoyed my binge. It makes me want to get back into catching up on my webtoon series and see what else has come to a end either completely or with a season. I know that some of my favorites also recently came back, mainly Lore Olympus, Let's Play and Midnight Poppy Land. If you are interested, definitely check out Webtoon. They have a canvas section that anyone can upload to and it's fun to find a unique series there only to have it officially picked up and have the full support of webtoon and become a featured comic.
Have you read The Remarried Empress?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: The Remarried Empress, Alphatart & Sumpul, 5-stars, 22 days, webcomic, 85 episodes, published in 2020
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