Ugly Duckling Webcomic Analysis: Overview
An Underrated Story Receiving Its Flowers
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
-Confucius
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Analysis 1: Ugly Duckling Webcomic
During the next few months, I will be doing a deep literary analysis on a webcomic I hold dear to my heart called Ugly Duckling by Lee Seul-Gi. Ugly Duckling is dear to my heart because while I’ve read manga for years this was one of my first introductions to webcomics and pages brought to life with color! From what I remember, it was a beautiful heartfelt story that had a unique retelling of the Ugly Duckling fairytale. This first arc of When Writing A Story will be me re-reading it and giving you a deep analysis on characters, themes, uniqueness, and the overall delivery of the story and what makes it work, what could be done better, and the elements you can take away when writing your next story.
Genre:
Comedy/ Drama/ Mystery/ Psychological/ Romance/ School Life/ Shoujo/ Supernatural
Synopsis:
Have you ever felt as if you were a protagonist of a fictional story? Then Ori's life could be called a cruel drama: the death of her parents, uncaring guardians, bullying in school, nervousness around people.
But as a matter of fact she is an invented character in the truest sense of the word! Ori is the main character of an unfinished story written by "Grandfather". And the new author, an unnamed male, is given the task to finish her story, and has already decided her fate, entailing a tragic finale! Only, Ori refuses to succumb to his will.
Doesn’t this sound interesting!?
Before we can get into the analysis let’s first look at the history of the tale of the ugly duckling.
History of the Ugly Duckling Fairytale:
I don’t remember anyone ever reading me the story of the Ugly Duckling or ever reading it myself. I may have heard the story when my mother took my brother and I to Barnes and Noble readings as a kid but I have no recollection of it. I, however, do remember that at the end of the story the “ ugly duck” flourishes into a majestic swan. So before we delve into this modern retelling let’s dive back into it’s history.
The Ugly Duckling is a Danish literary tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The story is summed up by A mother duck who’s ducklings hatch, but one looks significantly different from the rest. Due to the difference, the duck is deemed ugly and suffers so much pain and hardship because of it. The duck starts traveling from place to place searching for a place of belonging but winds up discarded. Ready to give up on everything, he encounters the swans, and to his surprise they embrace him. Only then does he see his reflection in the water where he has become a beautiful swan. (Hans also claims that this story is a retelling of his life!)
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Until next time my lovelies!
L.L.❣️