#ORV IS LITERALLY GOING TO KILL ME

[pttucker]

Okay, so, I've been thinking about some of my more recent posts and have started to combine them with some of my older posts and think I've come up with another theory that I want to throw out into the wild while we've still got like 40% of the novel left to go.

Well, actually it's not really a new theory for me per se, but I think I've finally cemented it whereas in the past I've had vague suspicions. Which has resulted in another giant post.

tl;dr: there are three stories in the novel, with the novel itself being Dokja's story and I think by the end Dokja will realize that he's inside ORV itself in a sort of Neverending Story kind of way, the Fourth Wall is between him and our world (and maybe also him and TWSA), and that the true Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint belongs to us.

So, anyway, I recently made a post about Han Sooyoung being the author of TWSA and overall I think this current arc we're going through right now is another major allegory / foreshadow for how the characters relate to TWSA, just like the Peace Land arc. But thinking on it some more, I think this arc (and possibly also Peace Land) is also showing how they relate to ORV itself.

Like, I actually even specifically said that certain passages relate to the overall plot of ORV such as this one—

Regrettably, there was no guarantee of the work ending up as a success even if the author did an excellent job. – Time to start our attack, Yoo Joonghyuk. Because the ones to complete the story were the 'Characters', not the author, that's why.

—and I think by taking that just a tiny step further, in combination with other clues, ORV itself will end up being almost a Neverending Story type of deal. Not necessarily with Dokja trying to talk to us like Sebastian and the Childlike Empress, but literally just realizing that he's a character in a novel.

Which is something Dokja has technically already realized, and maybe even unconsciously accepted, not only because of the above passage where he lowkey calls himself a character but also because he's seen that he's listed as a character when he messed around with the Fourth Wall (more on that later) and we have no idea if he recently became one or if he's always been a character and didn't realize it.

Unrestrained questions flooded my head. Why did I get this story here? What was the relationship between that story and being called a character? Was I now a character or was I still a reader? I… Was I still able to change the future?

However, I think the big reveal for Dokja is going to be not that he's a character but that the novel is not TWSA but instead ORV.

In fact, I know I've been using "TWSA" as kind of a shorthand for the world that Dokja is now in, with the scenarios and Joonghyuk and such, as compared to the "real world" he was in before as a company worker, but technically speaking TWSA is not Dokja's story. He is not inside TWSA. TWSA still exists as a completely separate text that he has access to and every time he looks at the revisions of TWSA they are still Joonghyuk's story. They go all the way up to the 1863rd round, and while Dokja is in the TWSA revisions, that's because Dokja is a part of Joonghyuk's story in the third round.

And speaking of the revisions, I kind of breezed past this in the tags of another post but Dokja got the Final Revision immediately after thinking to himself that he wants "an author" to tell him that he did good, that it's all going to work out in the end, that he's made the right choices. At the time I thought that perhaps Sooyoung could be the author of the revisions but now I don't think so anymore.

Going back through the text, the First Revision appeared when Dokja was dying in the Industrial Complex and he wanted to read TWSA to try to figure out if there was any sort of hope to fix things without having to ruin his story by killing innocent people. (And honestly he wasn't in any shape to kill people even if he wanted to at that point.) The Second Revision came after he abandoned Breaking the Sky Sword Saint to fight the outer god alone and felt like crap because of it (to be fair she shoved him through the portal while he was still trying to convince her to come) and he and Joonghyuk had a mini-conversation about what to do after and all Dokja could think of is to just keep struggling as best they can.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that all of the revisions have come when Dokja is at an extremely low point, floundering, trying to have someone tell him what to do, tell him that he's made the right choices, etc. Except not once has he actually said anything to anyone in the story around him. He didn't actually end up asking Sooyoung if he did the right thing; he wanted her to tell him it's going to be okay but he only thought it. Just like every other time the revisions have appeared. Almost like they came from someone else who can see what he's going through right then and knows he needs a little help...

Also, back when Sooyoung's version of the story first appeared, I was a little confused by the (First) after it, thinking that maybe Joonghyuk only had the first part of the story, but then later we see that Joonghyuk has 『Han Sooyoung – Records of the 1863rd turn (Last)』.

So now I don't think Sooyoung is writing the TWSA revisions, even if I do think she wrote the original TWSA, and I think that her story is also getting revised as she changes it because she is also a character in which "the ones to complete the story were the 'Characters', not the author" applies.

And speaking of the stories, I kind of went off on a sort of three, three, three tangent in the Sooyoung post, but I realize now that that can be taken even further. There's three unknown beings still left in ORV (Secretive Plotter, Oldest Dream, TWSA's Author), there's three protagonists in both TWSA and ORV, there's three people involved in a novel (Reader, Writer, Character), and there's three ways to the survive the apocalypse. Which, TWSA lists those ways as Regressor, Returnee, and Reincarnator.

But, technically, aren't we also seeing three ways to survive the apocalypse right now? Joonghyuk's way in TWSA, Han Sooyoung's way in her diary, and Dokja's way in ORV itself. Not to mention, now that I think about it, we have Regressor Joonghyuk, Returnee Dokja, and now Reincarnator Sooyoung...

Three separate stories, all sort of TWSA but not technically, more like they're all different versions of the same story. And the dokkaebi's have recently started talking about "which story will you choose" (talking to Bihyung btw, who's been helping Dokja all this time...) and everyone else in ORV keeps going on about a Single Story and how they're all vying for their true story and ending. And how maybe the true story/ending has finally come. Because this particular timeline is going through Dokja's story...which is ORV.

And too when I had the post about the "failed stories" I wondered if maybe it was foreshadowing for ORV ending in tragedy (and maybe that's still true) but also now that I think about the "failed stories" and how both Sooyoung's story and Joonghyuk's story could be considered the "failed stories" in a loose way. Granted, we don't currently know how those stories actually ended since ORV started off with Dokja waiting for the epilogue and the 1863rd ending was disrupted by Dokja, though Dokja has been pretty heavily implying that at least TWSA ended in tragedy up to the epilogue. And with the Single Story it's possible that all three of them will end up combined in the end of ORV itself.

Especially since we don't know what happened to 1864th Joonghyuk. It's possible we may see him again at the end of ORV. Also, I just realized that Joonghyuk stopped being a character when he moved past what was written in his personal story but, atm at least, he's also past ORV's story since we haven't seen him since and Dokja has no way of knowing what's going on with him.

On the topic of endings and epilogues, Dokja has been less and less willing to read TWSA as he starts living his own story and has finally outright said that he doesn't think his epilogue will be in the file. And, yeah, if Dokja's story is ORV then his epilogue would be ORV's epilogue. And ORV does have one. Even though I don't read the chapter titles ahead of time due to spoilers, I did notice when I looked to see how many total chapters ORV has that the last one had the word "epilogue" in the title.

And that's not even getting into Dokja casually stating that the novel is a lie. Which is very interesting.

And of course, there's the infamous moment where (while Dokja is sleeping I might add) the Fourth Wall starts telling the 1863rd Joonghyuk Dokya's story and it literally starts reciting the opening passages of ORV itself. And I'm pretty sure that when Sangah shoved him into it, he once again saw Dokja's story (ORV) just due to the fact that he zeroed in on not just Secretive Plotter, who doesn't appear in TWSA, but specifically all the things Secretive Plotter did in regards to and with Dokja.

In fact, as Dokja messes around with his Fourth Wall more and more, it becomes more and more sentient and present in Dokja's story (ORV) and he starts seeing things that perhaps he, as a character of ORV, was never meant to see, such as the fact that he's a character or that the Fourth Wall goes from simply blocking mental attacks to narrating Dokja's actions, reflecting his thoughts, etc. Just like ORV does for us readers.

I've actually briefly contemplated in the past that perhaps the Fourth Wall isn't necessarily protecting Dokja from the elements of TWSA, but in fact protecting him from the outside world (relevant part quoted below)—

Oh man, what if that's what it means by Fourth Wall? Instead of Dokja being a real person and the Fourth Wall existing because he knows he's not part of the novel, what if he's a character and the Fourth Wall is actually the barrier between him and the real world where the author lives? In which case, the being behind the Fourth Wall could be the author (or the reader!) of Dokja's story.

—and I then later began to wonder if it might be our world and not just some random third world inside the story of ORV, and I really do think that's the case now. Or it could be both! If I'm reading a comic about Batman who's reading a comic about Spider-Man, both I and Batman have a Fourth Wall between us and the fictional world we're reading about, ergo Batman has a Fourth Wall working both ways. (Ignore past Marvel/DC Comics team ups, pretty sure those aren't considered canon lol.)

And this is not only because of the fact that the Fourth Wall is acting more and more like a narrator (or like the third-person text of ORV) but that Dokja reacts so poorly to it going down. Sure, the first time the Fourth Wall went down a million constellations tried to attack him so that caused him issues, but later when he took down a little bit of it for the giants he was in a place with only his most trusted constellations who didn't seem to make any attempt to attack him and he only opened it up a teeny tiny amount and yet he still was physically wrecked. I don't think that he would be that affected by now by the elements of TWSA, especially since he literally learned he was a character and was freaked out for a moment but didn't have this big world-ending crisis...like he might if he attempted to connect to our world. Also, Dokja still hasn't gone back to the idea of using ORV on himself...

And on that topic, I know that I've kind of joked before that Dokja is the most oblivious person ever for someone who also happens to be able to read various characters' minds and see their actions, but honestly speaking there are tons of parts of ORV that are from other POVs that Dokja has never and likely will never see. I actually started tracking them about a hundred chapters back and we get a different POV, even if it's just a few paragraphs, almost every third or fourth chapter. And they're all from the third-person POV, just like how the Fourth Wall speaks.

Meaning that the true omniscient reader's viewpoint is ours.

PS: a very weak "clue" that I'm not really "officially" including is also the fact that The World After The Fall is mentioned as a book that Dokja has read and that's a real webnovel written by the same authors as ORV. I'm not really counting that since I do understand the concept of a cheeky little cameo but it could still be fun to at least acknowledge the possibility that it's something that secretly indicates that Dokja is maybe a little more connected with our world than any of the others.

PPS: I think if I find time this weekend I'm gonna go back through at tag everything or make a list of all my posts or something. Trying to find links for this majorly sucked and I just kind of gave up at points lmfao.

#I swear all I do lately is wander around in a daze thinking about ORV #I took a shower and zoned out so hard contemplating this theory I couldn't remember if I washed my hair or not #And then I got to work and realized I forgot to take my medication #ORV IS LITERALLY GOING TO KILL ME #lol I think I'm a bit tuckered out from all this theorizing all at once #well at least all this long form theorizing/meta analysis #time to go back to my regularly scheduled programming where I just react to dokja being a little shit and everyone else going along with it #orv #orv spoilers #orv liveblog #orv novel chapter 377 #omniscient reader's viewpoint #long post #kdj #yjh #hsy

[rusquared]

oh my god im going to grow older and older and i'll be the same age (kind of) as my favorite characters and then i will be older than them. i will look up to them and start to relate to them more and more until i surpass them and begin to look at them with the fondness i reserve for young, innocent children.

#i realised that im going to be 28 someday and dokja technically (im not thinking about all the orv timeline shenanigans forgive me) #is gonna be younger than me someday #im going to understand more and more about him #as i hopefully start jobs and shit #and then one day #ill see him younger than me and feel a fondness where i felt admiration #literally kdj with yjh im going to kill myself

[localapparently]

/ Orv novel ch 489 spoilers

[ Story, 'Saviour of the Star', is having a chat with the Story, 'Insect King' ]

Girl i will never recover from this chapter. the whole "gilyoung is jealous of yoosung" and "gilyoung would also put his life on the line and sign a contract with his sponsor to protect yoosung" breaks my heart and im just AUGHHHH SCREAMS

and now I will ramble about sys and lgy under the cut.

THEY MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME. have you guys ever realised how gilyoung was growing to become so fucked up in the beginning of the story? killing monsters and even people without batting an eye, offering to dokja to leave him behind, and even sangah and dokja were genuinely worried about his development. (sangah telling him she'll kill and he doesn't need to kill anything) and the one thing that sort of grounds gilyoung from this taking over his growth is when shin yoosung joins the party

its only after she joins that he's able to act his age like a lil kid, bickering and fighting and just... aughhh,, THEY ONLY HAVE EACH OTHER AS FRIENDS FROM THE SAME AGE OKAY... like having friends your age is so important when you're a kid, they literally stay together all the time. and they argue a lot but they defend each other and hold each others hands whenever the other needs help.

its SO fucking wholesome. NOT TO MENTION, yoosung was the reason gilyoung signed a contract with his sponsor in the jttw arc, (it was never specified why but i think he did it so she would survive and save dokja? Or like so he could have the power to fend off the enemies on his own and keep them occupied away from sys. Maybe I'll go reread that part again) the whole yellow aura thing yknow. and im like half certain they picked up the idiot-calling from like yjh kdj and hsy calling each other bastard stupid and idiot all the time...its kinda funny..

anyway. they make me so ill. SO ILL.

#orv spoilers #“why did you tag kdj hes not in this art” #well um.. /motions towards the mass of darkness/ #orv #orv fanart #omniscient reader fanart #omniscient readers viewpoint #omniscient reader #shin yoosung #lee gilyoung #kimcom #kim dokja #kdj #crit's art: orv

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; SIDE B

Yoon Jongwoo Propaganda:

So technically not a narrator but he's the main char/protagonist who we follow from majority of the show. But, he is slowly losing his mind due to: fear, paranoia, ptsd, being drugged, and lack of sleep. Big big spoiler for the last episode but we originally see him only killing in self defense and the main villian being the one to kill off/brutally murder the henchpeople BUT later on after the fight it comes out that HE was the one who killed them and he actually was even talking to himself at one point. It throws the whole episode into a new light and then makes u wo der how much of the rest of the show may have also been different than what we originally saw. How innocent is he??

Kim Dokja Propaganda:

I haven't read orv but he's fucking gotta be from what I've osmosised

He tries to remove his emotions out of the narrative soooo much, literally the most repressed guy ever. Okay so for context orv is about how this guy, Kim Dokja, has been the only reader of an obscure post-apocalyptic webnovel for years and the novel suddenly becomes reality. And at first you'll probably get the weird impression that his behavior is pretty strange for, you know, a literal apocalypse happening in his world - like yes, he is concerned with survival but he doesn't seem all that scared and he kinda treats it like a video game where he has to grind to make himself stronger and he also treats his companions like a party in an rpg. Then there's also the way he approaches the protagonist of the webnovel, from the start he just kind of describes him as a ruthless psychopath and jerk that is unfortunately a pretty useful ally. And also there's the fact that he carefully omits any mention of his past and when somebody asks if he's worried about his family when the apocalypse starts he just kinda... brushes it off? Anyway so yeah, this bastard is definitely traumatized, although I don't know how much of spoiler territory that would be, considering the fact that literally when he first reveals his trauma he's also unreliable about it. And turns out he does indeed, care A LOT about this world and the people around him. Because well, he kinda didn't care to mention that this webnovel that has become reality was like... literally his whole world before it literally became his whole world. Like, it was the only thing keeping him going for 10+ years and the protagonist that he likes to call a stupid jerk was his comfort character who he pretended to be when he felt like he couldn't handle something in his life by being himself. The protagonist is also canonically the person he loves the most according to a prophecy and he literally can't fathom the thought of him dying, even the timeline versions of him that directly oppose him. And I haven't even mentioned the Fourth Wall yet but I feel like this propaganda is a little long already

misreading the intentions of his companion (yoo joonghyuk) so many time.

YOU DON'T UNDERSTANDDD DOKJA IS SUCH A UNRELIABLE NARRATORRRRRR GOD I COULD WRITE AN ESSAY BUT I KNOW YOU LOVE DOKJA TOO BUT OMG HE'S JUST SO AAAAAAAAAAAH

he is the worst like actually. he starts the story talking about how normal and average he is. he is not. he is constantly mischaracterizing his friends and he's so good at lying to the readers that you don't even realize it at first. almost every single time he cries we have to be told by other characters because he never says it himself. there is literally a scene where his narration says "i wasn't crying" and then the in-universe entity that narrates the actions of people (orv is really weird and meta) says that he was, in fact, crying. honestly genuinely anything he says about himself (or doesn't say) cannot be trusted. he is just so frustrating. he drives me mad. i love him dearly. but he drives me so mad.

Rest of Propaganda under cut!

Dictionary definition of unreliable narrator. Does not tell the reader anything and then things happen and he's like oh yeah btw there was also this and this earlier but i just didn't feel like mentioning it. There's even a thing called the "Fourth Wall" that is able to see through kdj's bs so occasionally you get gems like, Kim Dokja: I didn't cry The Fourth Wall: [Kim Dokja was crying] Imagine being so unreliable as a narrator you need a more powerful narrator to call out the actual narrator.

This goes into spoiler territory, but; Kim Dokja is in possession of a skill called the Fourth Wall, which on the surface seems like it appears because he read the book that reverse-isekai’d into his own. However, as the story goes on it becomes clear that it’s pretty much a souped up version of his pre-existing dissociation. You cannot trust him to be honest about his feelings, his past traumas or his feelings about his past traumas, not to mention his tendency to just outright omit information that only gets revealed later on either when it becomes relevant or when an outsider POV reveals what’s actually happening. Exhibit A: he says (in 1st person POV) that he’s not crying. The Fourth Wall immediately contradicts this (as it is literally words of the novel) by saying (in 3rd person POV) ‘Kim Dokja was crying’. Exhibit B: Fails to mention entire actions when it shows him emotionally honest even in the slightest; we had to read from another character entirely when Kim Dokja was being physically affectionate with his companion. It’s so bad that there’s this entire paragraph about Kim Dokja describing himself hiding his eyes in his hands in jerky, weirdly specific detail and just AVOIDING EVERY WORD THAT MIGHT SHOW HE’S CRYING. The brilliance of ORV is that when you re-read the entire thing you get hints that ‘yes, this WAS hinted at the entire time’ but you have to dig it out of Kim Dokja’s repressed, depressed self-hating internal dialogue with your own two hands.

i am a simple man (not a man). i see a tumblr text post with the words “unreliable narrator in it”. i read nothing else. i reblog & tag #kim dokja okay but in all seriousness i’m just going with the musty basic example: so there’s this moment where he sacrifices himself to save this guy. as he lays on the ground bleeding out, he says “hey, you don’t like me, right? you should kill me to get some money” the guy says “no kim dokja i cant do that (going through the five stages of grief except there’s only one and it’s anger)” the constellations (twitch viewers irl) are like omg he (the guy) doesn’t want to kill his companion (kim dokja) and shower him (the guy) with money kim dokja: oh, he’s not killing me for the money. smart! as i quote a brilliant youtube video (all of omniscient reader’s viewpoint in 6 minutes) “yoo joonghyuk sees kim dokja as a c_____” yoo joonghyuk: companion kim dokja: cunt

Hides his true feelings, tells the readers what he thinks is convenient for the plot and that his own personal feelings don’t matter or are not so significant. Has unreliable thoughts abt his companion and is a liar. And is also an omniscient reader.

Kim Dokja always perceived his companions in this like nonchalant way like “oh yeah we get along but really we’re just fighting to survive (apocalypse setting) it doesn’t run that deep” when they all do genuinely care for him and he does in turn. He just, doesn’t think of it as an equal relationship? Dokja’ll sacrifice a lot for them but will get seriously flabbergasted if they do the same thing, so fricking problematic. Not to mention Yoo Joonghyuk, his “Life and Death Companion” (read: husband). Kim Dokja always seems to think that Joonghyuk has it out for him, which is kinda true, but he is literally blind to the fact that he’s attached to him. Like, it’s so obvious??? Also they have hella sexual tension but that’s another thing entirely

se get some many pov changes where kdj in his pov just assumed things based on what he knew the characters would do. however because of his interference the characters have changed and he wouldn’t know that if it hit him in the face

He's an unreliable narrator because he lies to himself and thus the audience. He literally rewrote his own childhood core memory. If someone says, "this guy is my friend!" He will go through so many hoola hoops in his mind just to rationalize it. Because he fundamentally believe that no one could love him and even if they did they couldn't know him and he's just gonna hurt them. He cries sometimes in canon but a lot of those times it's not even mentioned as crying he's that unreliable of a narrator. No joke, one time this guys he has a gay thing with called him his "companion" to someone who had just killed him (long story) and this bitch thought "oh wow he's doing it for the coins (another long story) he's so smart i wish I'd thought to that. He's terrible. He literally has an exchange with something called the Fourth Wall (an even longer story) where it said "you're crying" and he said "no I'm not" but he was crying. He makes me insane because the reader is supposed to project onto him. He made me see how much of an unreliable narrator I WAS. ORV is just like that tho.

#I DID NOT MEAN TO ACCIDENTALLY MAKE A COUGHING BABY VS HYDROGEN BOMB I SWEAR #i thought hell is other people/strangers from hell was a really popular show im REALLY SORRY #unreliable narrator battle #unreliable narrators #polls #side b #kdj #kim dokja #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #yoon jongwoo #strangers from hell #hell is other people

[myfaveisfuckable]

Janeway:

- will literally martyr herself at the drop of a hat

- will kill you if she thinks it's what she needs to do for her crew

- will not kill you if she thinks you've got residue humanity after decades as a borg drone even though realistically she really should've (tho ofc we're all glad she didn't)

- will violate your personal rights if she thinks you're not "human" enough and also compare you to a replicator (yes I'm still salty about that. wait what was the question? right, i'll get back on track)

- will say absolutely deranged shit like "then be a good rat and find us the cheese" in the a tone that makes me lose my mind and basically give everyone a crush on her (and also mommy issues) if they spend too long in her vicinity, leading to a very loyal crew

- her solution to having a crush on a fictional character was to delete his wife (very relatable but also very not normal)

- she wanted to watch hot Q on Q sex (possibly for scientific reasons) and looked very disappointed when it was severely underwhelming

- WHO brings a bathtub on a spaceship???

- there's more but y'know

Dokja:

1. Introduced as a bland everyman only made exceptional by circumstance, slowly revealed to be the most batshit, suicidally depressed, bisexual maniac in existence. Uses self-sacrifice like a tool and is completely unaware of how beloved he is by the people he keeps pulling into his fold because he is so deeply and utterly convinced that he is fundamentally unlovable. He's like sixty foundational traumas stacked in a trench coat and he's always sixty steps ahead of everyone else and he loves the people he chooses so so dearly and people keep calling him ugly even though he's canonically pretty average and holy shit dude get some therapy please

2. do NOT let the pretty official art fool u. this is the most average 28 year old salaryman going through the absolute most in the apocalypse. ORV is a story about the most average man on earth with the most mundane, depressing life. and one story that he read to cope with it all. he's just some guy, but he is also the most beloved specialest guy. not because he had some hidden talent. just because he loved a story ferociously and also he likes getting in trouble on purpose. he is the most unreliable narrator you will ever find. every piece of the universe loves him for his average stupid self. you will understand when you read 👍

3. GHBJNKML i am praying someone has sent him in but. unreliable narrator the most ever and also i just. love him so much. orv in itself is such a goo dnovel but like. kim dokja is the definition of love and the most caring person but also he's suffered so much and while. yknow we're introduced to him as a kind of nerd but like. listen he's so fucked up juts LISTEN

4.He looks like a neet-pulled office worker. Spoilers:

turns out to be one of the oldest things in the world and the only being keeping it going and alive. He needs to be there to keep the world going. Also, he got like kind of adopted by Persephone and hades. Like his blorbo is real and in love with him. But this man looks so average that people call him ugly to his face just because he’s surrounded by absolute gorgeous people.

#poll #tournament #orv #kathryn janeway #captain janeway #kim dokja #star trek voyager

[mae-i-scribble]

massive orv spoilers incoming

anyways it fucks me up rereading the scene where kdj and co meet the oldest dream for the first time. just. the raw emotionality of kdj looking at himself, that traumatized teenager and seeing the abuse that litters his body, the way he’s far too small for a child his age (probably malnutrition), and just silently walking up to the boy, to himself, and pulling out a sword to cut him down. The first thing he says to his younger self is that he’s a monster, that they’re both monsters. Not only that, kdj is desperate to kill the oldest dream, he literally doesn’t even hesitate to try and stab the blade into his own neck. The company literally has to hold him down to make sure he doesn’t kill himself.

And then secretive plotter comes out and kdj becomes resigned. He thinks that above all, sp is the one person who has earned the right to kill the ancient dream above all. Except sp doesn’t. He looks at kdj and sees just how hurt this child is, how the entire world turned his back on him, and ways of survival was the one thing he could cling to to inspire him to keep going. The 999th round companions see it to, they see that their tragedy was not done for someone’s sick amusement, but the unintended side effect of one child’s dream, fueled by a desperation that fuels the universe to keep watching them, pushing them to fight on and on. The most omniscient and powerless existence, crying for help all alone. They see that and the understand, they forgive.

But kdj cannot fathom that forgiveness. His mind so utterly rejects it that he assumes sp and everyone are just being swayed by the will of the story- because how could anyone who when through what they did forgive the cause of it all? He weighs his trauma against sp’s, the tragedy that lasted for a “mere” 10 or so years, the tragedy of one lifetime against sp’s thousands, and to him, his sin far outweighs any other factors. He starts getting desperate again, desperate for someone to see that no, he has to die to absolve himself of his so called crime.

Only the people he feels he has wrong have long forgiven him. The tragedy is that kdj hates himself far too much to even comprehend why or how. He sees the light return to ancient dream’s eyes, carried by the characters who saved him for so long and are saving him now, the smile on sp’s face that shines in liberation, and he cannot understand.

#orv #orv spoilers #omniscient reader #omniscient reader spoilers #kim dokja #secretive plotter #most ancient dream #oldest dream #this scene literally made me cry like 3 times #i was in actual shambles reading it for the first time #EVEN WITH SPOILERS #I KNEW HE WAS OD AND IT STILL FUCKED ME UP #i'll never be able to put it into words how much this scene hurts me #hell i cant even put a name to the emotions i get while reading it #but i just #wanted to try to express a fraction of my thoughts

[justaravingwritingdesk]

Now that I'm reading ORV again, I'm starting to think that maybe, the one Kim Dokja loves and hates the most isn't really Yoo Joonghyuk, but himself.

When you look again at the parallels between them, you'll see that Yoo Joonghyuk is Kim Dokja's "ideal" self. Yoo Joonghyuk even becomes his comfort character. Thing is, Kim Dokja draws a clear line between him and Yoo Joonghyuk, so even if he acknowledges that he wants to be like Yoo Joonghyuk he still believes he can't be Yoo Joonghyuk. That's why he shifts between wanting to be Yoo Joonghyuk when dealing with reality—I mean, his mantra is literally "I am Yoo Joonghyuk"—and wanting to stand beside Yoo Joonghyuk when reading TWSA.

Moreover, his relationship with Yoo Joonghyuk as the Most Ancient Dream plays a complicated parallel with his relationship with his mother. Just as his mother portrays herself as the "murderer" who killed his father, the Most Ancient Dream portrays himself as the one who "forced" Yoo Joonghyuk into an endless cycle of regression when in fact, it was Kim Dokja himself who murdered his father just as it was Yoo Joonghyuk himself who chose to enter the cycle of regression. And just like his mother who never truly answered Kim Dokja's earnest questions of why she did everything she did, the Most Ancient Dream never actually replied to any of Yoo Joonghyuk’s questions from the 1st through 1863rd regressions. Both the parent and the sponsor only "looked" at their child and their incarnation, respectively. Both Lee Sookyung and the now grown-up Kim Dokja locked themselves in a prison of their own making, just so the young Kim Dokja and the Company that they'd respectively loved could go on with their lives. Both Lee Sookyung and Kim Dokja made hard choices that they thought back on many times but never regretted. That's why Kim Dokja hates and loves his mother, because he sees the man he's become in her.

And don't get me started on the Star Stream! From the Four Fragments of the Final Wall to the Main Scenarios themselves, everything is set up to reflect Kim Dokja's own life! [Main Scenario #1 -Proof of Value], the scenario that began the tragedy, requires the taking of a life—mirroring the murder of Kim Dokja's father as the beginning of his personal tragedy. [Scenario - Survival] makes them pay for every day they live through and takes away the food they painstakingly gathered—no guesses as to what that hints of his home life. The last scenario was a very rude wake-up call, confirming his fears that the apocalypse was a tragic of his own making.

I need a drink. A very sweet drink. ORV is so sad to read sometimes, now that I'm reading it again and reading between the lines. Buh-bye for now.

Welp, rave on.

#orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kim dokja #character analysis #kim dokja is his own warning #poor guy is depressed and suicidal #also #generational trauma #like mother like son #in a bad way #projecting #yoo joonghyuk #lee sookyung #self hatred #a whole lot #but also #comfort character #the squid and the dumpling #the rat and the sunfish

[sm1l3b0t]

HELLO! for the orv ask game

8, 15 and 16!! thank you <3

HI!!!!!!!!!!!

8. whats your least favourite arc?

god this is a hard one because orv consistently puts out nothing but fucking bangers. honestly its probably gonna be the arc where they're fighting nirvana. i didn't really like nirvana's character partially because of the disrespect their gender and attraction towards yoo jonghyuk got and partially because when they got eaten by the wall i was really blindsided the first time i read it. while it makes sense in retrospect at the time i was kinda like 'oh. so we're just doing stuff now'. i also think we could have gone harder on the parallels between them and yoo jonghyuk. also when jung heewon gets infected with that thought poison thing that made her be trapped in her worst memories (her sexual assault) and the solution was.....for lee hyungsung to hug her really hard?

i understand what they were going for but they did.......not hit the mark there. there are some parts of the arc i really like - nirvana's interactions with lee sookyoung and han sooyoung killing kim dokja are two that especially spring to mind - but overall the arc is just not my favourite.

15. any characters you didnt love at first but grew to adore?

honestly? yoo jonghyuk. i will admit i fell for the trap!! i had a lot of trouble understanding him initially, honestly - i thought his whole shtick was 'total asshole incapable of communicating his emotions who secretly has a heart of gold' at first and it was an archetype i was pretty damn tired of. even when i finished the novel and grew to love his character, he was my least favourite out of yoohankim. i just couldn't relate to his eternal cycle of torment and struggle tragic backstory the same way i could relate to kim dokja or han sooyoungs. over time though i have come to appreciate and adore him and he is ABSOLUTELY one of my main blorbos now. such a fascinating character!

16. what part in orv made you realise it was gonna be your favourite?

ive talked about this a couple times on here before so ill try not to regurgitate it all (even though i love talking about it) but the part of orv that really made me realise it was like nothing else id ever read before was during the disaster arc when kim dokja tries to save 41st! shin yoosoung but is stopped because the constellations dislike the story. the reason it hit me so hard was because that was exactly what i was thinking as i read that part - wow, this seems kinda bullshit, no way it makes sense, etc - and it really hammered home for me what kind of meta story orv was building. the constellations were literally me!! probability was being moved by my desires and disbelief! it was such a gut punch moment!

thank you so much for the ask!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! had so much fun answering :))) <3

#orv ask game

[rocaillefox]

ok ik that hades & persephone are also kdj's parents in a sense but lee sookyung is also like. his mom. who saved him from going to prison for killing his abusive father. lets not erase that very, Very vital part of his personality, family heritage, etc- its so deeply ingrained into orv that the story would not exist without that event happening. lee sookyung writing the book is both following the themes of orv, and setting the pattern for it (belief -> reality). she is so inherent to who kdj is as a person that replacing her with hades and persephone in aus feels. wrong. his story is not worse for the tragedy of his childhood; and changing things is inherent to aus, but it must be done with intent. if the feelings of the original are not replicated thats fine- but then is it really still an au? its just simply not who he is. what we have experienced shapes us. and with kdj, quite literally this trauma is so ingrained in him that when hes lost everything else, the memory of that time when he was a kid pushed to the limit by fear and trauma is so closely held its all he remembers. ironic, considering he spends most of orv not remembering it- but still it informs him, though. in his staunch denial, he runs from his mother and hates her and loves her, too, in a way- all informed by what he cant let himself believe consciously.

like- hades and persephone can take a parental role like canon i guess. but theres other ways to portray that that more accurately reflect the emotions of what was happening, and kdj's own reluctance towards adopting them as parents. in truth, persephone and lee sookyung have a lot in common, and the choice for hades to be his father is very interesting from a writing perspective, given the history of the hades and persephone myth- given it involved hades abducting persephone, but not here. especially given hades dies in the end. in many ways, persephone and lee sookyung are foils; they come from a similar place and their stories end similarly. persephone is almost a rewrite of what lee sookyung's life could have been like, a rewrite that gets her to the same present time. lets not forget the leadership of the underworld- shared by hades And persephone- traps them there too. lets not forget her protection of kdj.

all this to say, fics that have hades and persephone as kdj's sole parents feel So weird to me. his initial choice to accept them in the novel is reluctant- at the very least, a fraught older adoption scenario that recognizes the pain of adoption is more accurate than hades and persephone as his bio parents.

#ramblings #orv spoilers #orv #parent death mention #abuse mention

[yesssireeee]

Taixu IS an orv fan song (very rough sorry everyone)

(taixu by Lasah and Sasakure.UK)

Ok so like TAIXU HAS ME IN A CHOKEHOLD AND NOT A GOOD ONE A PAINFUL ONE IT'S SO PAINFUL BUT AT THE SAME TIME I'M OBSESSED???? LIKE IF I THINK OF IT AS AN ORV REFERENCE - WHICH BTW IT TOTALLY IS - I MEAN IF YOU KNOW THE LORE YOU CAN'T TELL ME IT'S A WALKING ORB REFERENCE LIKE THIS FR COULD BE A FAN SONG-

AND MY EVIDENCE FOR THIS IS FIRST OF ALL THE WHITE CROW GOING "You need to wind the world, until the end" LIKE ISN'T THIS BASICALLY OLDEST DREAM (KDJ) HE CHOSE TO STAY IN THE SUBWAY BECAUSE HE NEEDS TO MAKE SURE HIS WORLD GETS "The end" AND HE'S THE ONE WHO HAVE YJH THE ABILITY TO WELL UNWIND THE WORLD RIGHT?? HE TAKES IT AS HIS RESPONSIBILITY BECAUSE HE WANTS TO SEE THE EPILOGUE FOR HIS FAVOURITE NOVEL - WHAT SAVED HIM - BUT HE CAN'T SEE HIMSELF IN IT-

SECONDLY, THE WHOLE "The first end came so suddenly you couldn't say goodbye to me.

The tenth end came with agony, I thought that we were meant to be.

The hundredth end was simply just an apathetic day for me.

The thousandth end was ecstasy, the people begged for me to bleed."

LIKE IF THIS DOESN'T SCREAM YJH LITERALLY WHAT DOES???? IT TOTALLY REPRESENTS HIS REGRESSION DEPRESSION THAT WAS MENTIONED SO DEEPLY IN THE NOVEL LIKE THIS IS LITERALLY HIM- AND THE WHOLE "couldn't say goodbye" IS LIKE HOW HE sSACRIFICED EVERYTHING TO SEE KDJ BUT DOESN'T GET TO SEE HIM UNTIL MANY REGRESSIONS LATER WHEN HE HAS FORGOTTEN WHO KDJ IS AND WHY HE EVEN STARTED HIS JOURNEY (Thouvht ig that's kdj's fault) ALSO HOW HE BECOMES APATHETIC TOWARDS DEATH AND KILLING HIS COMPANIONS FOR THE GREATER GOOD LIKE??? AND ALSO THE WAY IT WAS ECSTASY BECAUSE PEOPPE BEGGED FOR THEM TO BLEED I CAN ABSOLUTELY SEE THAT APPLIES TO YJH ESPECIALLY DURING THE 1863 ARC WHERE HE SACRIFICES HIMSELF- ALSO HOW HE CLAIMS TO HAVE GROWN APATHETIC TO KILLING HIS COMPANIONS WE KNOW YJH ISN'T COMPLETELY AND HE STILL SUFFERS-

OK THEN THERE IS "Remember when I used to be you?" LIKE???? THIS IS LITERALLY 49% 51% KDJ THIS IS SO 49% 51% KDJ LIKE THIS LITERALLY IS ABOUT - HOW KDJ WATCHES THE (Almost) OTHER HALF OF HIM LIVE OUT WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE HIS LIFE HAPPILY WITH HIS COMPANIONS- THIS IS LITERALLY OD WATCHING THE OTHER KDJ AND LONGING FOR BEING WITH HIS COMPANIONS AGAIN?????

THEN THERE IS "Unwind the world and your nightmare's gone" SO LIKE OBVIOUSLY THIS FITS YJH???? LIKE IS THERE EVEN A QUESTIONS ABOUT IT?? IT BASICALLY REPRESENTS HOW WHEN THE WORLD GETS TOO BAD HE RESETS TO "SAVE IT" AND SAVE HIS COMPANIONS AND REACH THE END (Tho he has already reached that end but that little ungrateful mf--) I LITERALLY REFUSE TO BELIEVE THEY LITERALLY AREN'T TALKING ABOUT KDJ

THEN THERE IS "No, I can't leave the world by itself it needs me until the end" SCREAMS LITERALLY WITH BOLD LETTERS ON A BILLBOARD ON *MUTIPLE* BILLBOARDS OD AND KDJ- LIKE THE WHOLE "THE END" THING IS LITERALLY A KDJ REFERENCE AND YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND BECAUSE HIS "◼️◼️" IS PRETTY MUCH "The end" OR COULD ALSO BE "Eternity" PLUS LIKE THE WHOLE KDJ SUFFERING ALONE JUST TO SEE THE ENDING FOR HIS FAVOURITE NOVEK THAT'S LITERALLY A QUOTE RIGHT OF THE NOVEL AND YOU. CAN'T. CHANGE. MY. MIND.

"Remember when we used to be 2" OKOK LISTEN TO ME THIS IS SO OBVIOUSLY 49 51 KDJ OBVIOUSLY SO SO OBVIOUSLY I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT BUT WHY CAN I KINDA SEE THIS BEING YJH AND SP TOO??? LIKE SP THINKING ABOUT HOW YJH ISN'T "Him" AND HOW HE WILL NEVER BE THE YJH THAT IS KDJ'S COMPANION BUT THAT'S KINDA A STRETCH IK BUT LIKE OBVIOUSLY THIS IS 49 51 I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT

THEN THERE IS THE BLACK CROW THAT COMES ALONG "you're not chosen to wind the world, wait for the end" I'M GOING TO GET INTO THIS A LOT MORE LATER WHEN I COMPARE THE LAST LINES BUT DOESN'T THIS KINDS SCREAM YJH TO KDJ?? OR JUST KIMCOM IN GENERAL I COULD TOTALLY SEE THIS BEING HSY OR JHW YK MINUS THE IDIOT BC OF COURSE THEY WOULD SAY IDIOT BUT LIKE THIS BEING KIMCOM TRYING TO GET TO KDJ TRYING TO CONVINCE HIM THAT HE IS NEEDED FOR THE EPILOGUE

THEN THERE IS "The hundreds the and millions are depending on what I believe."

THIS COULD VERY EASILY BE HSY OR YJH- LIKE HSY OBVIOUSLY CHOOSING THE WRITE THE NOVEL AND PRETTY MUCH CHOOSING HIGHSCHOOL KDJ OVER IDK YK *THE WORLD⁉️⁉️* LIKE SHE REALLY BE LIKE PRIORITIES IG AND THEN VERY OBVIOUSLY YJH BECAUSE HE'S THE PROTAGONIST THE "Hero" AND HIS CHOICES AFFECT ALL OF THOSE LIVES BECAUSE HE'S THE STRONGEST THEY DEPEND ON HIM AND WHAT HE BELIEVES WHICH IS WHY SYS HATES HIM SO MUCH FOR HIS CHOICES BUT CAN'T STOP RESPECTING HIM- THERE IS ALSO WHEN YJH DECIDED TO RESET THE HAPPY ENDING THAT KDJ WORKED SO HARD TO GET FOR HIM BUT THREW IT ALL AWAY FROM KDJ HIMSELF

"I buried him so deeply with the words that always haunted me.

His eyes reminded someone who I used to long and grieve."

THIS IS LITERALLY YJH. LIKE HOW HE SUFFERS THROUGH SO MUCH JUST FOR KDJ JUST TO FORGET WHO HE IS AND HOW MUCH HE MEANS TO HIM- HIM TRYING SO HARD TO GET TO KDJ AND FINALLY GETTING TO HIM AND NOT BEING ABLE TO REALIZE WHAT HE FINALLY GOT BECAUSE HE HAD HAD FORGOTTEN WHAT HIS GOAL WHAT AND WHO IT ALL WAS FOR AND JUST WENT THROUGH THE ENDLESS CYCLE OF REGRESSION AND REGRESSION- TO FINALLY GET TO "The end of the scenarios"

THEN THERE IS "so tell me what's the "end of the world'

The crows were both myself.

Or...

was..

it you?"

AND THIS IS WHERE THE WHOLE THEORY COMES TOGETHER AND I THINK THE WHITE CROW IS SP AND THE BLACK CROW IS YJH OR KIMCOM IG BUT SINCE THE WHITE CROW IS SP I'M GOING TO SAY THE BLACK CROW IS YJH- THIS IS BECAUSE THE WHITE CROW IS THE WHITE CROW IS TRYING TO KDJ (Not actually kdj but yk) TO STAY AND BELIEVE THE WORLD IS UP TO THEM RIGHT?? AND WELL I GUESS I FEEL THE WHITE CROW IS TALKING TO OD SPECIFICALLY AND DOESN'T THAT MAKE PERFECR SENSE FOR SP?? TECHNICALLY WHAT HE WANTS IS KDJ TO BE WITH HIM AND TECHNICALLY HIM BEING IN THE SUBWAY AS OD IS IN HIS FAVOR AND HE WANTS HIM TO STAY THAT WAY YK WITH HIM AND MAKING HIM BELIEVE THAT HE NEEDS TO STAY THERE TO SEE THE END THAT HE LONGS FOR-

AND THE BLACK CROW I'VE ALREADY EXPLAINED THIS BREIFLY BUT YJH (And Kimcom obviously) ARE TRYING TO GET KDJ OUT OF THAT SUBWAY FOR HIM TO BE PART OF THE STORY- THEY NEED HIM TO STOP BELIEVING THAT HE ISN'T NEEDED IN THE STORY AND THAT HE HAS TO BE THERE TO SEE THE END AND SAVE THE WORLD (Or his companions bc I wouldn't say the world per se is his priority) SO TELLING HIM THAT HE WASN'T MEANT TO WIND THE WORLD AND THAT HE SHOULD "Wait for the end" WOULD BE LIKE TELLING HIM THAT HE NEEDS TO SEE THROUGH THE END WITH THE REST OF THEM AND LIVE THROUGH THE REST OF THEIR LIVES TOGETHER

AND THEN THERE IS "both the crows were myself.

Or...

Was...

It you"

THIS FITS MY THEORY SO SO SO WELL BECAUSE THE "The crows were me" COULD BE LIKE OD HALLUCINATING AND IMAGINING HIS COMPANIONS (More specifically yjh) DUE TO HIS LONELINESS- I MEAN HE IS CALLED THE OLDEST DREAM BECAUSE OF A "DREAM" SO IT COULD BE OD TRYING TO CONVICE HIMSELF IT WAS ALL HALLUCINATIONS OR THAT HE WAS IMAGINING IT BUT THEN THE "Or was it you" IS SO PERFECT FOR THR CROWS BEING YJH AND SP I DON'T THINK I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHY- I also just want to mention as a quick addition to why so and yjh as the crows was so good bc I compared the *white* crow to sp who is known for his white coat and the black crow to yjh who is obviously known for his *black* coat which is

So to sum this up TAIXU IS LITERALLY AN ORV FAN SONG AND THE WHITE CROW IS SP THE BLACK CROW IS YJH AND IT CYCLES KDJ AND YJH POV THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE SONG.

If you're as insane about this goobers please say something 🙏🙏🙏

#orv kim dokja #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kim dokja #yoo joonghyuk #omniscient reader spoilers #omniscient reader novel #i am so insane about them #i am unwell

[arbiterofsecrets]

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint: JoongDok

Honkai Star Rail: RenHeng

a/n: this post WILL include SPOILERS from both fandoms, please DNI if you don't want to see shit

warning/s: ORV SPOILERS, HSR SPOILERS

"Tell me, you fool. If I continue to regress, will I ever get to meet you again?" — Yoo Joonghyuk

now we all know that kdj and yjh are 'companions'. kdj throughout his whole life, has continued to read the novel TWSA, it's an escape from reality. he found solace in TWSA and in it's protagonist. for over 3000 chapters in the 3,149 chapters of TWSA, he said and i quote, "I liked, hated, grumbled, and cheered Yoo Joonghyuk on. That's why I stuck with Yoo Joonghyuk for over 3,000 chapters."

meanwhile, yjh has regressed over 1000 more times just to see kdj again (see the quote above).

be it enemies, friends, companions, lovers, their stories are for and made for each other. hence, why they try their hardest to save each other.

literally damned fools IT HURTS.

"Imbibitor Lunae... When will our retribution come? How can our debt be repaid?" —Blade

before the sins of their past, dan heng and blade were companions as well. ultimately, they were close until something caused all the falling out.

during dan heng's imprisonment, he read books. do you see where i'm going with this?

him reading was also an escape from reality, much like kdj. it was his hobby, his only routine to keep him from thinking back to what happened and what could've been.

years has passed yet blade still wishes to bring doom to dan heng, "Of five people, three must pay a price. You, are one of them."

dan heng tries to convince blade that he is no longer the person blade seeks to kill. yet, blade still sees dan feng no matter what and will fulfill his revenge. since, who else can he blame it on?

another set of doomed enemies, companions, lovers, whatever they may be.

might i add, they are both considered to be black-white couples. they come in a pair, you van never separate them. these pictures made something snap inside of me and i needed to word vomit. companions that wish to either save or destroy each other, they somehow bring the best and worst in each other. all of that is the essence of doomed companions.

similar, if not the same, poses as seen in the pictures above. we have the readers on the same side and the person that wants to 'kill' them on the other same side; similar expressions, and last but definitely not least: heartbreaking stories.

if we add hsy + jing yuan to the mix, that's another set of depression.

#orv #orv spoilers #hsr #hsr spoilers #orv yoo joonghyuk #orv yjh #orv kim dokja #orv kdj #hsr dan heng #hsr blade #hsr renheng #renheng hsr #orv joongdok #joongdok orv #kim dokja #yoo joonghyuk #kdj x yjh #kdj #yjh #dan heng #black and white couple #'companions' they say

[lizhly-writes]

@aeluuin hi. anyway! anyway!!!! continued from this normal orv fan knw thing!

This is really not how Kim Namwoon thought he’d be spending his morning.  Or his afternoon.  Or his night.  Or, really, any moment of his existence.  Good to know that, faced with a difficult decision, he’s super chill with picking murder.

He hadn’t had a choice!  Catching one of three insects is the same of killing one of three characters – people with names, personalities, stories!  Stories that, altogether, set this worldline to successful end!  Is he willing to risk that?  Better to kill one of those passerby NPCs no one gave a shit about, right?  He hadn’t had a choice!

Haha, it’s better if he thinks of it like that, isn’t he?  If he really thinks about it – but of course, he’s not going to really think about it.  He’s been spending five minutes carefully not thinking about it, because if he thinks about it, if he really thinks through the implications of what he’s done –

Kim Dokja is staring at him.

“Well, what’ll it be, ahjussi?” Kim Namwoon says, a little manic, because what else could he possibly be at the moment?  This is his doom right here, isn’t it?

It isn’t like the novel.  Can’t be like the novel, when Kim Namwoon has already satisfied scenario conditions.  If Kim Dokja wants to kill him, then Kim Dokja has to do it with his own two hands – literally with his own hands, because it isn’t as if Kim Dokja has a weapon other than his fucking money.

Wow, wouldn’t that be something?  That’s an especially brutal death, isn’t it?  Wouldn’t it be poetic justice if it happened to Kim Namwoon, considering what the original character had been trying to do?

He straightens up, knife at the ready, watching Kim Dokja – watching each blink, each twitch, every little movement – 

Kim Dokja walks away.

“...Eh?  Hey–” Kim Namwoon cuts himself off before he can actually ask why aren’t you going to kill me, because that’s – that’s just the worst question all around, he doesn’t actually want Kim Dokja to reconsider, but… he’s only human.  He’d still like to know.

Hey, isn’t he still the epitome of all of Kim Dokja’s complaints?  His self-hatred issues?  Shouldn’t there be some kind of duel to the death? Kim Namwoon’s not complaining, of course!  But this is…

Anticlimactic.  That’s the word he’s looking for.

Huh.

He exhales. This is… this is an okay outcome.  He wanted Kim Dokja to ignore him.  Kim Dokja is ignoring him.  This is exactly what he wanted.

There’s still five minutes left to his scenario.

He wants to put his head between his knees and just… breathe.  But of course, that’s not allowed.  That show he put up earlier isn’t enough to dissuade everyone from approaching him if he sinks to the floor, curled up in fetal position, not at all paying attention to the world around him.  That’s an easy target if he’s ever seen one.

Kim Namwoon can do that thing if he wants later.  

For now, he leans against the train carriage wall and waits.

...

Kim Namwoon isn’t moving.  He seems content to stand there, smiling defensively, ready to take down anything that dares attack him. Fine.  Kim Dokja will leave him to it.  There are better uses of time than watching a high schooler who doesn’t seem to inclined to do anything.

Five minutes left.

[You have killed a living thing.]

[100 coins have been earned as additional compensation.]

[You have killed a living thing.]

[100 coins have been earned as additional compensation.]

One question answered: eggs do count as living creatures.

If he had more time, it would be easy to portion out the insect egg sack to save every person on this train.  But who has that kind of time?  Furthermore, is that kind of thing worth it to begin with?  What’s the point in lugging around dead weight?

If they’re dead weight, they should be at least loyal.  And there’s no way he could make sure of that.  Ideally, he’d want the Behind The Scenes Contract to be sure – but he remembers that contract being worth far more than what Yoo Joonghyuk could get in these early scenarios.

“Hey,” Kim Dokja says.  “Dokkaebi.  Are you paying attention?  What can I do with these coins?”

Maybe there’s a cheaper option he doesn’t know about.

And certainly there are many people here willing to sign away their lives, if only they could guarantee that they wouldn’t be destroyed.

#normal orv fan knw #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kim namwoon #kim dokja #orv #kdj #knw #my writing

[aroacehanzawa]

THANK YOU FOR RBING WITH YOUR THOUGHTS especially the last line.

i really do miss when bsd stayed in its own genre, and I KNOW before someone comes at me that sometimes you gotta do a little exploring, a little swaying. but not like this. i just dont enjoy the manga anymore because it's so far from what i fell in love with. and again before someone says oh then why are you reading it and complaining if it makes you so mad😤😤😡 IM NOT EVEN READING IT. I CHECK THE LEAKS AND I GO YEAH THIS IS STILL JUST FYODOR AND DAZAI NOT DYING. also because i care about the characters and i still want to see how the whole thing is resolved cuz guess what im not gonna just stop reading it after i invested 3 years of my life into it.

anyway yeah. as i said. whagever.

ME TOO.

The thing is that bsd has always been something more than just silly detectives vs port mafia shenanigans, but it managed keep this larger world contained in a way that made sense in the story. For example the book, which is practically a deus ex machina device, still had its place and function in the story - francis wanted it to bring back his daughter, and even the usage of the page to frame the agency was logical.

Even the more high tech stuff like the eyes of god surveillance system was well played - not only did we get a funny ace attorney moment of francis interrupting the courtroom and buying the software, it actually became plot relevant in the cannibalism arc to locate fyodor and early doa arc to find mushitarou. (and francis's death fakeout was actually good, because it wasn't overdone yet, plus we got a nice and fun redemption arc for him)

But then we're suddenly getting a bunch of new ability weapons like fukuchi's sword and prison realm one order and idk. what else have we had. Time manipulating cat lady who was practically used as an off-screen human ability weapon for dazai's convenience and then immediately killed off with no name no dialogue no character #feminism.

All this while it seems like asagiri completely forgot about the part where atsushi is somehow a beacon towards the book, but that isn't too surprising because it feels like asagiri has forgotten about the role and personality and agency of the characters in general. The thing that drew me into bsd in the first place was its sincere focus on the human experience, the way that each chapter and mini arc seemed to have something to say about the overarching themes of finding a reason to keep living and a place to belong. Now i feel like the last time we got to see any of this kind of commentary was with tachihara's arc, or briefly with sigma, but it still feels too shallow.

And like you said there's nothing wrong with a little exploring and a little swaying, in fact i think the whole premise of bsd is that it allows for so much exploration, but to me it feels like the potential that bsd held in the beginning is just not being met anymore. Or rather we're just not heading in the direction we could've been going in.

Atsushi and his implied connection to the book like i mentioned earlier. The order of the clock tower that has been teased since agatha's introduction and some sporadic mentions/implications of its existence since then. Dazai and fyodor's unknown first meeting (this is why i also don't like them killing off fyodor just like that because we still don't know anything about him BUT the way we've ended up in this inexhaustible loop of dazai wins fyodor wins dazai wins fyodor wins i also don't see any way out of it unless one or both of them die so. asagiri just look at what you've done)

idek what i'm trying to say here i'm just really frustrated because i've invested so much of my time in following bsd and it's like as a reader i'm not even getting anything out of it.

anywya read orv for good plot and characters and worldbuilding and literally perfect storytelling and respect for the reader

#bsd

[princess-of-purple-prose]

Hiiiii :3

So I'm starting to read more Asian bl novels thanks to a friend and she recommended me omniscient reader view and you're the only mutual that I know that has read it and I know 0 things about it, any thoughts that you would like to share? 👀

It is really going to make me cry to death?

I hope you have a good day 💖

This ask filled me with an unfathomable amount of excitement, but it also made me laugh really, really hard, because while I would never say it's wrong to call omniscient reader's viewpoint an "asian BL novel," it's kind of like... Hm. Hindu trying to think of a sufficiently funny joke about the bible here and failing. Basically: yeah, that's in there, but holy shit are you both underselling and underestimating it by saying that :)

I've answered questions about orv tons of times (see my best attempt here), but I am quite literally always happy to do so again!! I'll start with this: Since we're both tma fans, I think you are going to LOVE the apocalypse orv presents, especially its tragic themes on voyeurism and privacy and silent bystanders/watchers, self-sacrifice and suicide, and women who kill. You are also going to love kim dokja for his brand of sopping-wet pathetic bisexuality, but that was a given.

Orv is technically brilliant-- it renders its themes unto you like an obsidian knife-- but it's also INCREDIBLY funny, and although it has a convoluted timeline and a complex plot, it WILL hold your hand as you go through it. Its characters are so three-dimensional they literally jump off the page (how's that for a meta joke), and they WILL live in your brain forever after reading the novel. They're inescapable. And on that subject: YES, ORV WILL MAKE YOU CRY. It made me cry while I was reading it for the first time, multiple times, and it still makes me cry! Almost weekly! And I do not cry at things!!! This book fucks you up so so bad and you will kiss its feet and thank it for the privilege!!!

I really hope that makes sense, I have so much I want to and could say and absolutely no way to express it coherently, I just hope this is sufficient to keep you interested!! Thanks so much for the ask, I hope you're doing great!!!! 💜💜💜

#HIII!!! sorry this took so long to get to; i was saving up the juice for a good response!! i hope you've been well in the meantime :DDD #i should also say that orv is a REALLY queer novel #but there are some very off-putting instances of transmisogyny in the novel; i will gladly go into detail if needed #there's also a trigger list for orv somewhere without any spoilers! #asks #little-lamb-lyosha #kay talks #seriously this was such a nice ask to get!! ily!! mwah!! #at this rate i should make a personal tag for reccing orv aklaksjdh #<- edit from the future: LMAO #orv rec tag

[gayandfullofdismay]

Was no one going to tell me how much gayer the ORV novel is than the webtoon??? Literally YJH is the funniest little meowmeow and he has such different vibes from webtoon YJH like webtoon!YJH is like KDJ’s POV (always murder-y, specifically wanting to kill KDJ, serious) and novel!YJH is the BIGGEST clown, this guy acts like he’s making one (1) friend for the first time in his whole life and they’re sooo autistic4autistic in literally every interaction

#orv #lux reads #not kdj hyperfixating on one stupid fucking novel for 10 ten yrs #not YJH being sooo socially incompetent and KDJ thinking he still 100% just wants to kill him #even when everyone else thinks they’re gay #they’re soooooo #going insane

[pttucker]

That guy, why did he bring me here? ⸢(He's a being who witnessed the end of one world.)⸥ The 'Devourer of Dreamss' spoke as if it already knew what my question was. ⸢(What can compel a being who already knows of ■■ to throw himself back into the great cycle once more…?)⸥ In that moment, I recalled a certain moment in my life. It was a piece of my memory from a very long time ago. I was a young boy, sitting opposite my mother and reading a book resting on my lap. – Dokja-yah, please read it again. What would be the reason for an existence that knew the story inside out to read it again?

Hmmm

I feel like this adds to my theory of this entire story / this entire novel having played out before with no one remembering it (except maybe Secretive Plotter)? Because Secretive Plotter isn't rereading the same story, he's technically reading a new story if he's actually from the original TWSA.

Except Secretive Plotter also has said things like—

[I wasn't putting on a show. That guy from the 1863rd should've been a part of me originally. Just like all of you.]

and—

The 'Secretive Plotter' opened his lips. [41st. You are the most similar 'Yoo Joonghyuk' when compared to me.] "What an honour that is." [You'll soon die.] "Have we not come this far for that exact purpose?"

and—

"Finding his prey, protecting his pack, the distant goals he longed for – this wolf was achieving all those with the minimal amount of pain. Without losing anything in the process. The king watched this spectacle, and suddenly thought to himself." Slowly, so very slowly, a chill crept down on my back. "If this story is brought to its conclusion as it was, then what was the purpose of the life I've lived so far?"

—which makes me begin to wonder if all the Joonghyuks were supposed to be from the same story, except Dokja messed it up somehow and now Secretive Plotter is wondering what the point of him even going through it all was if the story has been corrupted / he doesn't like being broken into pieces. (Secretive Plotter literally says it's Dokja's fault so it's definitely something Dokja did.)

And part of me thinks that it at least somehow relates to Dokja having read TWSA. Or maybe to Dokja having come into "TWSA" when he should have stayed outside as a reader???

Maybe the thing Secretive Plotter needs Dokja for is to read the story and that'll somehow fix things? Put him back together with all the other Joonghyuks and thus essentially "killing him," or at least "killing" all the Joonghyuks that are supposed to be part of Secretive Plotter??? We've literally already seen that Joonghyuk can be split so maybe they can become one again? Oh my goodness what if Nirvana was right and Dokja must become one with all the Joonghyuks?

Though, which story Dokja needs to read is debatable.

...ORV?

I feel like I'm almost there in figuring things out but am either missing a piece or aren't connecting the right pieces so all my theories feel less like proper theories and more like throwing brain spaghetti at the walls and seeing what sticks.

#orv #orv spoilers #orv liveblog #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv novel chapter 419 #kdj #secretive plotter #it's probably not helping that lately I only seem to have time to read this right when I wake up or right before bed #in other words when my brain is wondering why I'm even awake