Are You The Clone or Am I?
Do clones dream of Dolly the sheep?
Tags: #ItWasAllYou #Webtoon #Clones
Plot Twist: Spoilers
So we did write out a whole outline for this, but it’s hard to really critique a piece of fiction that consistently broke every rule in its own worldbuilding as the story progressed.
It Was All You (2021-2023) by I Soon Ki and OH5HO is a confusing and whirlwind webtoon of cloning, love, and power. What starts as an intriguing story of a clone tester struggling with her failing marriage takes a hard left into conspiracy and doppelgangers. The first half of season one follows Yuri, a clone tester for XYZ (actual name of the company), struggling with her feelings for the newest model clone, nicknamed Victor, while uncovering her husband’s affair with her best friend. The first hint that this webtoon is going to go off the rails comes when the husband admits to killing Yuri’s son and parents. Immediately, Yuri decides she’s going to murder her husband and begins plotting the perfect crime. Victor, a clone programmed without the three clone laws (basically Isaac Asimov’s ‘three laws of robotics’), kills Yuri’s husband to ‘protect’ her. The whole thing then turns into a Bonnie and Clyde montage ending in a train explosion which also reveals that Yuri is the clone and Victor is the clone tester.
The second half of season one is pretty much ‘Detroit: Become Human’ but adds mutants and more clones of Yuri and (now) Victor. And a conspiracy to take over the Korean government to cover up the dumping of injured clones into a slum. It completely rewrites the first half and changes all the rules we thought we knew about XYZ and Victor and making clones. We can see the plot twist of switching Victor and Yuri; this could have been a very interesting story. However, the authors then tear up all the worldbuilding they had provided us with and force new rules that felt like plot devices to set up the new plot twist in every other chapter. There are multiple clones of the same characters and some questionable science to bring back the original Yuri’s brain in a new, different clone body. (Yes, there was a non-clone Yuri, but it’s too complicated and doesn’t make sense anyway).
Season two is the second half of season one on steroids. Every trope you’ve ever thought of regarding androids or clones, the authors stuffed into the last 60 episodes of this webtoon. This may have worked better if you were reading this week by week as it was released, but it definitely does not work when you read it in one go as a coherent narrative. It is cliffhanger after cliffhanger. A new plot twist every week, often requiring rewriting of past episodes, with little explanation as to how the new world makes sense without deleting the whole backlog of narrative. A plot of convenience, not of sense.
Was there a theme? Clones are bad, but also they aren’t because some of them have ‘souls’. Love is also important, but it also is maybe related to having a soul and so if you don’t have love you’re the evil CEO of a clone producing megacorporation. There are discussions, briefly, about clone rights. Is this the theme? It’s hard to say, because they quickly stop talking about it.
Maybe the authors were pushing us to go outside and touch grass. Maybe it was a comment on the widening wealth gap between the ultra-rich and the lower classes (because clones are super expensive). Again, it’s difficult to say, because the webtoon immediately takes another hard left from that into more explosions.
Anyway, we had an outline for why this is a bad way to make a story, but you get it. Trying to describe the plot makes it pretty obvious as to why it’s a bad idea. It’s impossible to say if there was a consistent theme or even a solidly middle-grade idea of a theme. There were questions raised and no answers. Despite a promising start, this webtoon really disappointed us. We just can’t slap together another article about blah media this month.
Image Credit:
I Soon Ki [@skllsk] (2024) “<러브 로스팅>을 봐주시는 독자님들이 전작인 <모두 너였다>를 봐주셨는지 관심독자가 늘었습니다. 애착하는 작품이다보니 두배로 감사합니다 : ) Readers who watch "Love Roasting" are also interested in seeing its predecessor, "It Was You." I'm doubly grateful because I'm attached to it. : D #제주도 #러브로스팅 #모두너였다 #もう一つの愛 #또다른사랑 #anotherlove #모두너였다 #네이버웹툰 #네이버시리즈 #webtoon #이순기 #ISOONKI #Siemprefuistetú #全て君だった #itwasallyou #戀愛複製人 #全部都是你” 15 August, https://www.instagram.com/skllsk/p/C-snuhbhapd/?hl=en