You know what, fuck this webtoon. But also fuck my heart for falling completely in love with it. I think what I feel for this series is exactly how the Quarries feel for Mother: I worship it but I also kinda want to tear it to pieces and forget about it because of how much pain it's caused me.
The story starts off very simple. We see how almost an entire village persecutes the twelve year old Rose and Léa Dupré (her mother) because they think Léa is the witch who's been killing people and animals for years. Thankfully, though, not everyone in the village is an ass. The Duprés are bros with the Grands, who are always ready to come to their defense when other villagers are being jerks.
The one thing that's troubling Rose the most is that she has a crush on Pierre Grand, her one and only friend, and she simply doesn't know what to do with it. Meanwhile Pierre is busy herding sheep like ain't nothin more important than this 🐑✨ So anyway, I thought the story was going to be about these two going around the globe and climbing mt. everest back to back ten times before finally, finally deciding to be together, or about Rose gaining the trust and respect of the villagers.
Enter Lemon, and it all goes to shit.
I can't say much because I don't wanna spoil anything, just know that everyone in this story is both a victim and a fucking devil. Don't get too attached to a character because you'll see the horrible things they'll do later on and you'll just be sitting there like oh dear 👁️👄👁️
I'm genuinely in awe of the way this webtoon so completely and quickly won my heart. Seriously. It's been a while since a story got me this emotional. There were times when when my finger was literally just hovering over the exit button because it hurt so fucking much?? I know they're all just characters in a story but all their sorrow, fear, happiness felt so real and raw. There's no other way to describe it. Every single element like the dialogue, the tiny changes in their facial expressions, all complement each other so perfectly that I, as a result, was able to immerse myself so much more into the story. And the art, my God the art. I was completely awestruck by the sheer beauty of it. I think this is visually one of the best webtoons I’ve ever seen. My words won't do it justice so go ahead and read it and your eyes shall be healed your face cleansed and your sins washed away.
Now, the plot: normally I'd know right away where the story is going based off of a few chapters alone, but I'll admit my two remaining brain cells were basically screaming bish you better STOP. this is too complicated for us at four in the goddamn morning. And I was just like we must endure. 😔✋ So I spent hours and hours sitting on my bed reading about how these characters repeatedly get screwed over by life.
And when I finished ch. 239 (latest chapter in English version), I didn't read anything else for more than a week because I was still so hung up on this series and its characters. I knew that if I did read anything else, it would have seemed inferior to The Pale Horse.
That said, though, I think I'll gladly pretend that Season 3 never existed.
Rose, Pierre, and Lemon are all trash in their own special way, but at least they all own up to it. No I've actually been the good guy all along you know, I'm just pretending to be bad in front of everyone bc of yada yada yada. They're despicable and they know it, the author knows it, and we know and accept them for it. I highly appreciate it when characters' personalities are so flawed and complex, not just simply good or bad.
All that changed when I read S3.
The moment Pierre went after Rose, I knew. I just fucking knew that Lemon would get dragged through the mud because the Rose x Pierre ship had to sail. Sadly I was right. All of a sudden, Rose is the typical "I never meant to do any of it. THEY made me do it." and Lemon turned into this generic final level bad boss character that they both had to defeat in order to live happily together. Gone were the complex characters I knew of, and it genuinely became so much harder for me to continue reading.
I think the people in this thread would be able to explain things better than me. It's full of spoilers so don't click the link if you haven't finished reading the story.
All in all, though, I still consider The Pale Horse a masterpiece. Which is why I've included it in my All Time Favorites list because it deserves nothing less. Please read it if you haven't. It's literally one of the best webtoons out there.
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