@NoGround
1. It literally doesn't matter how you phrase this, Canon =/= Original, Moreover, just because it became a LN there should've been no need to change the designs of characters between versions, as design is a mere artistic choice, it literally has 0 weight in story development(the need for artistic changes, I mean), and that is what i'm criticizing. Also WN may be a rough draft and so changes are expected, but there's changes and there's a description of a clear white skull mark becoming scales shaped in the form of a skull.
Moroever, this: "Zoe Ele to Zana Horowa all have spikes in their illustrations..." This is the main point i'm criticizing, those spikes don't serve any point whatosever on the designs of a spider, they make Kumoku look like anything but a spider.
Also, remember this, Ronant not only described her looks like an all black spider with scythes for arms and a White Skull mark, he also clearly stated that there was a bit of inconsistency between her looks and the fear that creature was inducing, which means that while ominous, she shouldn't look that terrifying, this goes completely against the inclusion of all her dragonscale-like exoskeleton and spikes in her LN art, because those elements would validate the feeling of fear, and not create this disconnect feeling. This is an extremely important detail because it was this difference in looks and feel, that made Ronant use his Analize skill multiple times to confirm Kumoko skills, which he conjectured that a skill was at play promoting that feeling.
2. Ronant's description already disproves your argument, moreover that is a poor excuse given the fact that most of her forms aren't exclusive to her(and she did take a look at other spiders before), actually only after she entered the Zana Horowa family tree did she become a unique spider and this argument would work. More importantly, this only serves as even more evidence that my argument about Zana Horowa was right, because now she can confirm her looks, this gave the author a chance to describe something she couldn't have before.
3. "The Light Novel art is based around the Light Novel descriptions and Okina's input. The web novel has nothing to do with the light novel art, so I don't understand what kind of argument you're trying to make. It makes no sense. "
It makes all the sense in the world because the Light Novel is not detached from the Web Novel, it's literally just an edited version with extra content. She didn't discard everything and started afresh. Moreover, you don't seem to know how LN art works, the artist has a lot of freedom to create the designs. Not only in Kumo Desu Ga, I've read more than 10 LN's which had a very large difference between what's described in written pages and what is present in the art, Asterisk War, Isekai Mahou wa Okureteru, Saijaku Muhou no Bahamut all come to mind.
LN art usually comes from personal interpretation of the descriptions given to them by the author, and these descriptions are usually very basic.
Say all you want about the spiders, but it's when the human characters show up that you clearly see what i'm talking about.
Read the Maou's description and tell me the LN art is exactly how you imagined Ariel to look like, and what about Ronant?
You clearly see a lot of artistic freedom in the drawings, there were many details that the artist himself put in the characters and were never present in the original description.
In Isekai Mahou wa Okureteru you even have the Irony of the text contraditing the image directly in one same page. This shows that yes the LN illustration cannot be fully trusted.
Another example of that is the different artstyles in Youjo Senki, where descriptions clearly portray Tanya as being a pretty cute girl who will probably grow up to be a heartbreaker, but most of the art downplays that on purpose, because the author wants the artist to emphasize on her personality, and a real image of how she looks like would interfere with the reader's interpretation of her actions.
"one that everyone else I've ever met (there's over a thousand) " Numbers don't imply truth and Canonism doesn't imply originality. This only means that there are over 1000 people who support your views but are still wrong. the WN is the rough draft it's where the LN came from, therefore IS the original. LN is merely the story after it was edited. LN versions usually feature new content, but they still follow the same storyline, and it's no different with Kumo Desu Ga, the LN versions has more content on each of Kumoko's forms, something that the WN really lacked, as it felt like these parts needed more content, Zana Horowa and Arachne were especially affected by this as these two forms were rushed through in the WN.
"They're both written by Okina Baba. Have you ever heard of a writer re-writing a story for a publication calling their old, self-published online version the definitive version of their story? Don't answer, that's rhetorical. It's obviously a "no." Sure, the web novel is the original. Is it the canon you should base your arguments on? No. "
Joke's on you pal, self published stories also get manga adaptations, and those are also considered to be canonical on it's own merit, moreover some authors even include some fan stories to their own canon.
Like I said, LN and WN have the same story, LN merely has much more content.
"As a final note, you seem to be using the WN to base your arguments to trash the LN, but the manga is based off of the Light Novel, not the Web Novel. Full-proof of this is last few chapters of the manga. We are now in Volume 4 of the LN, which is 90% original material not present in the WN, including Mother leaving the labyrinth and Kumoko's fight with the puppet taratect. Fucking nuts to base arguments for the manga off of something that has no correlation to it. I'm done with you."
I'm not trashing the LN I'm trashing the LN art(I don't like what the artist has done to several characters and the lack of consistency between several of Kumokos forms belonging to the same faamily, where one stupid detail is mantained, but the body structure itself is not preserved, Ede Saine Looks like a proper spider, Zana Horowa looks like a tick sharing only the stupid overgrown spike in the abdomen), there's a humongous difference between the two. Manga being based off the LN changes nothing.
Yes this conversation is over, i'm out.
