The Webcomics Weekly returns and looks “Under the Oak Tree” for fantasy romance and courtly intrigue.
Under the Oak Tree
Episodes 60-64
Schedule: Tuesday
Written by P & Kim Suji (Original Writer)
Illustrated by Seomal
Illustration Assistance by UMUL, K_Din, nanmyo, Woo, Quack, Juhee Lee, Dayeon, & SAIDA
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
The second season of “Under the Oak Tree” comes to an end that is more a tease for the third season than a conclusion to this season. Perhaps that is a by-product of the structure the source material takes – which I have no familiarity with. There is a way to read this tease, the arrival of a royal inspection and Princess Agnes Drachina Reuben, as the culmination of “Oak Tree” second season. In the previous strips, Max is seen mastering healing magic and for the most part managing the estate, though the work for both never seems to end. That narrative mastery shifts them toward the background as tasks that now happen off-panel and in the gutters. The Princess is an entirely different problem. Princess Agnes is, for now, positioned as a potential political and romantic threat to Maximilian. Navigating that presence will surely put her speech and shyness to the front in new ways. While I might have preferred something a bit more towards the collusion side of things, the writer and bevy of artists do a good job teasing out the potential for next season.
The opening of this episode immediately picks up from the cliffhanger in the prior strip. The art team does a good job of building up and capturing Max’s anxiety at this sudden summons. She is largely isolated during this sequence. Readers only get one good look at her from the front. The architecture of the castle becomes ominous and elongated, taking advantage of the vertical presentation of webtoons. Various geometries are thrown into the gutter space between panels transforming what is normally blank space into a non-representation realm of anxiety. It’s only 6-7 panels in length but it feels like it lasts much longer as you scroll down the page with images of caged birds and weaponry. It’s been interesting to see how the strip has modulated Riftan’s presentation as Max, and his, relationship have progressed. That shift in presentation is what helps to ease and undercut the tension once we finally see Riftan offering Max a seat. The light is coming in from behind, giving him a romanticized appearance, but at the same time, there is a shared feeling of being overworked by management duties that Max had a few episodes earlier. It isn’t a total shift from the tension of the previous strips or a rejection of it, but something that puts Max and the reader at ease as he works through the exposition. In episode 64 this was the best-executed moment.
Of course, an innocuous aside by Riftan involving his relationship with Princess Agnes begins to unsettle things again. Looking back on this series I’m consistently won over by the creative teams commitment to keeping as much as they can within Max’s POV. Rooting it in her perspective allows for them to deal with her anxieties in a way that both reads as honest and lets them cook with some more cliché melodramatic romance tropes that might not fly otherwise.
After this exposition dump, the episode goes into a bit of autopilot as it has to clean things up for the big reveal at the end. It is executed well enough with her little moment with Ruth standing out. In particular, the chibi cut away reaction panel to him bringing her homework as she prepares to deal with all the other stuff. I’m curious where a character like Ruth will fit in going forward, they’re a court mage, but the teacher-student dynamic and support are what actually makes them interesting.
Overall “Under the Oak Tree” comes to a largely satisfying conclusion. The art is, per usual, well done, it is stylish without being obvious. The writing and structure are there even though they might not be to my immediate taste. Having caught up on it over the past week there is an emphasis on character dynamics that remind me why I like reading romance comics so much and why most romance strips I read are irksome. They think romance is this aesthetic and tired set of tropes that push the character towards a pre-ordained path like a fairytale. But like the synopsis for this strip says: this isn’t a fairytale. Everything is a negotiation.
