"Once upon a time, in a land of fairy tales, lived a girl and her grandmother, protected and secluded from the rest of the world. When her grandmother is taken by a mysterious boy, Wen must travel to the outside world to save her, but the world isn’t as magical as she once thought, and danger lurks around every corner. With the help of her friends, will Wen be able to solve the mystery of the boy with the ravens? And more importantly, will she be able to solve the mystery of her past?"
Webtoon description
Raven Saga is a webcomic by Chihiro Howe following the story of Wen, a young girl who grew up sheltered and secluded on a farm with her grandmother. When her grandmother is kidnapped, she joins forces with a cursed Prince and a talking bird to find answers.
You can read it here
!
Raven Saga provides examples of:
- Alice Allusion: In episodes 85 through 88 when Corliss must travel into Wen's mind to return her lifeforce to her.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Taran attacks Monde's cabin, and kidnaps Monde and her geese, which prompts Wen to start her adventure with Corliss to find The Morning Star and rescue Monde.
- Creepy Crows: The person kidnapping magic users appears and disappears in a flurry of ravens. Played With a bit with the introduction of Fiachra.
- Curse Escape Clause: Corliss believes that finding Little Petal may help him find his. As of episode 92, Corliss' curse is broken. Seren theorises, because Corliss thinks Andersen cursed him for being selfish, that this is because of Wen selflessly giving her life to save him.
- Dream Walker: Wen briefly finds herself in the same dreamscape Corliss has been seeing Little Petal in episode 40, while they sleep in Lune's home. However, she sees a fair bit more than him, seeing six ravens locked in cages as well as Little Petal and the patch of flowers she sits in.
- Fairytale Motifs: The whole comic's full of them. Examples:
- Most if not all the characters are confirmed to be based on Fairytale characters. Such as:
- Mother Goose is Wen's grandmother, Monde.
- Hamelin is The Pied Piper of Hamelin
- Puss in Boots appears briefly in an early chapter. He returns and has a much larger role, finally leading Wen, Corliss and friends to The Morning Star.
- Corliss and Theo are inspired by The Happy Prince.
- Snow White is Snow White, of course, but specifically she is Snow White from Snow-White and Rose-Red.
- Armell (who has been turned into a bear) has a younger brother, Bernard, who is friends with Goldilocks. The town they inhabit also has the Rapunzel twins, and an innkeeper couple who appear to be Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf. This town is a big reference to Howe's other webtoon The Other Day I Met A Bear.
- Wen, Taran, and much of the plot thus far, are all based on The Seven Ravens.
- The different regions of this world also have very fairytale themed names. Such as:
- Fablewald.
- Talehurst.
- The Sea of Talemar we briefly see it on a map in episode 31.
- Most if not all the characters are confirmed to be based on Fairytale characters. Such as:
- Forbidden Friendship: Sirena and Oto belong to two feuding clans of ocean-dwelling people, but despite that are best friends.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Wen is Little Petal (or rather, Little Petal is a seperated and lost part of Wen) and she and Corliss knew each other before their respective curses.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Corliss is a male example, and paired with Innocent Blue Eyes.
- Karma Houdini: Helia's propensity for turning men to stone seems to be of surprisingly little concern to Lune.
- Living MacGuffin: Corliss has dreams of a mysterious young girl, who he calls Little Petal that he is trying desperately to find.
- Modest Royalty: Corliss doesn't look any fancier than anyone else in the group. In fairness, he can't due to the curse.
- Mystical White Hair: Helia, and Lune are both powerful magical beings, and both have white hair. Now includes Wen's mother and Wen herself.
- Ocean Awe: Wen has only ever read about the ocean, but she dearly hopes to see it eventually, and find out what it sounds like.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: Wen
- Rescue Romance: Wen and Corliss first meet by Wen rescuing Corliss from being passed out in the woods.
- Samaritan Syndrome: Corliss has a curse-enforced version. His curse compells him to help anyone around him who is in need, even if it would cost him his life. He often has to go through towns with his eyes and ears covered to get through without incident.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Turns out Giovanni is a case of this. He can take a humanoid, elf-like form, but something seemingly painful prevents him from doing so for long.
- Shipper on Deck: Snow, big time.
- Taken for Granite: Helia, The Lady of The Sun, does this to men who stay in her castle overnight.
- Seems to be what happens to those taken by the ravens. Revealed to have happened to Clarimonde's geese in episode 59, and subsequently to Clarimonde herself, most likely.
- Talking Animal: Theo was Was Once a Man and Corliss' personal guard. Though he was turned into a bird, he's still capable of human speech.
- Fiachra is also a talking bird, but only Wen can understand him.
- The bear also Was Once a Man and is capable of speaking to humans.
- Un-person: A feature of Corliss' curse. He's the second prince of Fablewald, but no one remembers his existence as such. Also seems to be part of what's going on with Little Petal, as Corliss has never been able to see her face in the dreams, and Theo doesn't remember her fully either.
- Was Once a Man: Theo, who was turned into a Swallow, and Armell, who was turned into a bear.
- Wistful Amnesia: We see in a flashback that Wen experienced this early on in her life with Monde on the farm, but would get headaches if she tried to recall her past before then.
