#sctir meta

[kernsing]

never over the fact that han yoohyun remains also a victim of child neglect/abandonment/having adult responsibilities foisted upon him too young even as he grows up under yoojin’s care. it’s not yoojin’s fault, he did his best and he did good raising yoohyun but. you’re not supposed to be able to hurt your parent, you’re not supposed to learn how to manage your parent’s emotions/wellbeing/public image, you’re not supposed to have to fear for their physical safety and desperately try to figure out a way to protect them, you’re not supposed to be capable of real cruelty toward them, not supposed to be able to fuck up their life. but your parent is your brother who is only five years older than you, and suddenly the new and dangerous world demands you (you who are new and dangerous too) in its spotlight, and you are just a child and he was just a child. the world is so wholly unjust to both of them and i will never fault either for how their relationship was in shambles for three/eight years, even when han yoohyun makes his terrible decisions with terrible consequences, paving the road to hell. you’re not supposed to be able to hurt your parent like that. you’re not supposed to be a brother that he needs to rely on, just as much as you rely on him, both of you abandoned.

haven’t even mentioned yet how you’re not really human you don’t understand humans you try your best for your brother but you Don’t Get It, how and why society works and the full emotional harm its hatred can wreak. you might see it but you don’t get it like physical danger and there is so much of that latter danger in the world now. you might see him and keep tabs on him but you don’t get your brother, that he needs you like you need him because of the very fact that you need him and children realizing their parents are complete emotional beings is not something that should happen before you learn to stand on your own. and learning to stand on your own, paradoxically and inevitably, takes much longer when you are forced to grow up too fast. you are forced to mature too early and so you are immature in ways invisible. so many flavors of terrible responsibilities foisted upon them that no one should ever bear (raising a child while you are a child/the world is on fire and so are you/your parent also needs you to bear your shared emotional burden).

it’s so unfair. i’m bundling them both up in a blanket. han yoojin’s childhood was stolen away so he could give this simulacrum of a childhood to his brother but the world is terrible and yoojin is just a child too and it’s not possible it’s not his fault that the wonderful beautiful childhood he built is not, cannot be the bulwark in the face of brutal reality, that delicate childhood shaped by hands still so small too.

[seikyoko]

Jinjae make me insane

SHJ is Crescent Moon's handsome Ken doll, YJ is similarly the beloved playing doll that you pamper and keep in its glass case. They're both the object of many awakener's obsession, some where they keep that person separate (Shishio, BHY, KSH for YJ) or other cases where they continue to take care of them and keep them close.

They're the sacrifice prettied up at the altar, they're the transcendants fighting figurine doll, where those powerful godly beings keep interfering in their lives and "care about/love" them/show them affection and make a mess of their lives in their quest to benevolently help worlds they're not involved in, their death/the undoing of their self and chance at getting a happy ending is a necessary sacrifice for the greater good and the preferable outcome. They're also sought out by other transcendants for similarly dehumanizing reasons.

They both have been the target of a wedding ceremony attempting them to strip them of their self and deeming their personhood irrelevant

They're both simultaneously overwhelmingly powerful and competent and extremely helpless, aware of how bleak their fate is and how their chance of getting their happy ending is next to nonexistent. They're often more valued as an object regardless of their will/individuality which is often deemed inconvenient by many parties.

They're both doomed by the narrative

They're both extremely observant, good at reading people, goot at taking care of people, pretty benevolent in their own way and simultaneously extremely ruthless, they're good at manipulating people and are pretty private and bad at emotional vulnerability/asking for help, in part because their parents fully neglected them outside of basic necessities and because they don't have faith in society in general.

They are frequently put on a pedestal and often people who've they paid attention to define their self worth through the attention they (YJ or SHJ) give them.

They're both wholly unused to being seen due to being either seen through rose colored glasses or sewer colored glasses and it's a system they don't think they mind that much, and they're used to either be twisted into a more palatable light or being despised for not being more palatable/personally useful to them. And they frequently use a palatable/acceptable persona in order to get somewhere with new acquaintances and often play with other people's perception of themselves, either for funsies or for getting what they want, both because it's a more efficient way to interact with other people and also because their actual emotions/selves get rejected or dismissed as a lie. This is why their initial interactions are soo awkward, and why once it hit a certain point they start exponentially getting along better

Then they start interacting and they're more similar/in sync/same wavelength that they expected, even if they're held back from realizing how similar they both are by their preconceptions about the other

They do have their beloved/people who do know them and see them more than others ever do(STW, YH), but the entirely new variable in Jinjae is that the other fucker is the same

they relate to each other too much in a way they can't relate to STW/YH

So we've all read the same novel. Jinjae have this thing where they're seen and not judged for it (aside from the occasional throw away comment where YJ make fun of SHJ for something silly like not eating bread crusts, but they're hardly an actual judgement/condemnation YJ is making on SHJ), they're being actually cared for by someone they actually find reliable and trustworthy and they're in the presence of someone who get it and who understand them

[forechoes]

Final Gratitude and Han Yoohyun’s Death

(NOTE: In this post, I refer to Han Yoojin’s skill as “Final Gratitude” as opposed to the official webtoon translation of “Final Thanks” and the initial webnovel translation of “Last Repayment” and have inserted it accordingly to avoid any confusion. Also, warning for general discussions on what happens to the body after death and spoilers for up to chapter 60 of the webnovel.)

(Another small note: I made this horrendously long post to justify a personal headcanon, and it is entirely for fun and speculation! For a more serious take on the “Final Gratitude” skill, please start at the paragraph that begins with “For this last section, I’ll be discussing my general thoughts on Final Gratitude.” Thanks!)

I was rereading the webnovel when I realized that Han Yoojin states that Han Yoohyun’s corpse was cold and stiff shortly after he experiences his memories in chapter one:

“The body I was clasping was cold and stiff.”

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 1

But that’s normal right? Like, his brother is dead, of course it is? Sure, maybe, but with the release of the webtoon, we don’t have descriptions, we just know that Han Yoojin is holding his brother’s body the entire time.

(I know the webtoon doesn’t acknowledge this, but the visuals are just nice, okay?)

Before both the webnovel and webtoon describe and (kinda) show him gently placing his corpse on the floor:

“I slowly lowered my brother’s body, which had lost its warmth, to the floor.”

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 1

The description still stood out to me, and after rereading the first two chapters again, and checking the later chapters, I just wanted to discuss Han Yoojin’s Final Gratitude skill, how it operates, some possible interpretations, and my general thoughts on it.

From here, I’ll be using both the webnovel and the webtoon (despite its assassination of Han Yoojin’s character that I’ve heard being talked about, rip) for evidence, but with a main focus on the webnovel, since it is the source material.

The thing is, to my memory, Han Yoojin never really explains his “Final Gratitude” skill. It’s shown to us how it operates, and everything else is eventually revealed to us as the story continues.

The first time we’re introduced to it, we’re given this in chapter one:

[The Title “Caregiver” is in effect.

Caregiver Supplementary Skill - Final Gratitude

The skills and abilities of Awakened Person “Han Yoohyun” will double in efficiency.

Duration time - 1:00]

An announcement window confirming this guy’s death appeared. One of my title’s Supplementary Skills, a growth buff giving the skills and abilities of the other person after the other person’s death for one hour. Not to mention, getting double the effectiveness.

Strength burst through my body and at the same time a part of that guy’s memories was transferred.

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 1

This is what’s stated in the official translation of the webtoon:

Bonus Skill [Final Thanks] activated! Effects will last 1 hour.

The skills and stats of the deceased Han Yoohyun…

…will be transferred at double effectiveness!

—My S-Class Hunters, chapter 5

(Okay, but the official translation really called it “Final Thanks” huh? That’s… unfortunate.)

And Han Yoojin’s narration:

I can sense his powers flowing in.

And along with the powers… his memories are also flowing in.

—My S-Class Hunters, chapter 5

So from this, we know that Final Gratitude:

is a supplementary skill from his “Caregiver” title

lasts an hour

gives the skills and abilities of the deceased person and doubles its effectiveness for one hour

a part of the deceased person’s memories are transferred

Now the webtoon adaptation slightly diverges from the webnovel at this spot, because Han Yoojin actually experiences his brother’s memories before he begins attacking the Lauchtas. Despite the differences, we can derive that at this point, in both mediums, experiencing Han Yoohyun’s memories takes time.

In the webtoon adaptation, Han Yoojin experiences his brother’s memories while he attacks the Lauchtas. By the time he kills it, he’s parsed through them all and thinks:

The effects of Final Thanks are wearing off.

—My S-Class Hunters, chapter 5

We’re told that his skill, at this point in both the webtoon and webnovel, lasts only an hour. So, in the webtoon, we can interpret that it takes nearly an hour for Han Yoojin to experience all of Han Yoohyun’s memories.

Meanwhile, the webnovel states these two lines I quoted at the beginning of the post after Han Yoojin sees his brother’s memories:

The body I was clasping was cold and stiff.

and later,

I slowly lowered my brother’s body, which had lost its warmth, to the floor.

Since this is before Han Yoojin attacks the Lauchtas in the webnovel, we seemingly don’t have a sense of how long this memory transfer takes.

However, when I reread the first and second chapters, I found it strange to consider that Han Yoohyun’s corpse had lost its warmth in—what I initially assumed to be—the seconds that Han Yoojin sees his memories. But then I remembered that dead bodies don’t lose their warmth in seconds—they’re still warm even minutes after.

So I searched it up, and it turns out that it takes at least an hour for the body to begin to lose its warmth after death, and about three hours for the body to begin stiffening in a process called “rigor mortis.”

I want to emphasize that rigor mortis, according to this site, first occurs in the eyelids, jaw, and neck within or around the third hour.

Han Yoojin states that Han Yoohyun’s body was stiff—rigor mortis continues for several hours after, and the fingers and toes are the last to stiffen. According to the website, maximum stiffness occurs at twelve (12) hours. Twelve. This means that Han Yoojin experienced Han Yoohyun’s memories for three to four hours at the very least, while also considering how he’s in the middle of a dungeon with a partially injured 1st-grade monster.

Now, you may be thinking, “Woah, that’s a long time. But that seems excessive for an interpretation, Nyx. We’re only shown a few memories.” And while it’s true that in a timeline sense this theory doesn’t seem rational, I’d argue that this interpretation can stand, given what the narrative tells us about the state of Han Yoohyun’s body.

The body after death is an entire process—the only way one can possibly speedrun it is based on external factors (temperature, environment, and so on), and there’s no mention nor description of either for it to be a possible factor in the webnovel.

As I mentioned before, Han Yoojin drops information on this skill gradually as the story continues, so I’ll give a quick overview of what we know about it up until chapter 47 of the webnovel before moving on to my next point:

Final Gratitude is a supplementary skill from his skill title “Perfect Caregiver” (previously “Caregiver” before the regression)

is applied by using the keyword associated with the title (the keyword now being “I love you”)

gives the skills and abilities of the deceased keyword-influenced target and doubles its effectiveness for seven days (the duration having been increased from one hour to seven days post-regression, due to his “Perfect Caregiver” skill title)

a part of the deceased target’s memories are transferred

That being clarified, I now bring you to Blackie.

When Han Yoojin is kidnapped for the first time, his kidnapper, Kim Woojae, says this before trapping him with Blackie, a giant poisonous reptile:

That storage method is a curse that makes your entire body stiff and makes you feel pain. No matter how strong of a guy you are, after 30 minutes, you'll beg that you'll do anything to be let out.

—The S-Classes that I Raised, chapter 46

So, we know that Han Yoojin was with Blackie for about half an hour, since Kim Woojae is only trying to threaten him for Peace’s owner token (so he can get more money out of the deal they’ve made).

Later, when Han Yoojin and Blackie attack Kim Woojae together and Blackie is killed by the man, Han Yoojin narrates:

The Lauchtas' Natural Enemy skill application message window appeared as well. Before I could properly read those, Blackie's memories were conveyed over.

Same as the Final Gratitude I had before, they were memories related to me.

A very short memory, that didn't even reach a mere 30 minutes.

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 47

Almost thirty minutes. Han Yoojin was there with Blackie for almost half an hour, and the memory transfer is just as short.

Blackie was afraid of me, felt curiosity, and was happy with the C-Rank magic stone powder it ate for the first time.

That guy liked my voice that was telling it that I love it. It thought my hands were warm. It instinctively felt that it couldn't win against Kim Woojae, but it wanted to protect me.

It worried about me to the end.

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 47

Knowing this, we can compare Blackie, who’s known Han Yoojin for about half an hour, to Han Yoohyun, who knew his brother since he opened his eyes. So it can be plausible to consider that it took Han Yoojin at least three hours to experience the part of Han Yoohyun’s memories that he saw, long enough for his brother’s body to begin feeling cold and stiff.

However, it’s also plausible that when comparing both Blackie and Han Yoohyun’s memory transfers, they’re debatably around the same length, with arguably the same number of details (if you squint and round up). So you can also argue that maybe both of them were almost a half an hour experience—or even shorter, considering the urgency of both situations.

Since this post is titled “Final Gratitude and Han Yoohyun’s Death,” the last time I recall Han Yoojin talking about his brother in relation to this skill is in chapter 60 of the webnovel:

It wasn't just that people I was close to died, either. Thanks to that, I lived. At the same time, I even received their memories. In front of my eyes, the corpse was there, but the memories of that person thinking of me rose up in my mind. For Yoohyun, it was a portion of his whole life's memories, so it came in sparsely, but usually, the memories right before dying came in without fail. If it was just someone I knew to a certain extent, it was still okay.

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 60

From this section, we see that Han Yoohyun’s memory came sparsely, but in chapter 3:

The feeling of his cooling body was vivid under my palms.

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 3

This process is called algor mortis, or “death chill,” where the body temperature drops steadily at about 1.5 degrees F per hour until the corpse reaches the air temperature around it. This actually occurs before rigor mortis, or the stiffening of the body. So, if his body was cooling, that implies and reinforces that Han Yoojin had to be holding Han Yoohyun’s body for at least three hours if he could feel the warmth leaching from his hands.

And you may have been thinking for a while now, “but the Final Gratitude skill only lasts an hour!”. That’s fair! I headcanon that Han Yoojin has to experience the memory transfer first before he can use the applied target’s abilities and the skill begins its timer. This can be supported in chapter 47, where after experiencing Blackie’s memories, Han Yoojin reveals:

“The amount of transferred memories were so few, so it seems like it'll take a bit to adjust.”

The more memories the other person had about me, the faster the adjustment to the transferred stats and skills were. So in the case of Yoohyun, I was able to use them skillfully as if I was Yoohyun himself.”

—The S-Classes that I Raised, chapter 47

Implicitly, this section tells us that he only begins to adjust to the abilities after the memory transfer. So, we can interpret that he has to receive the transferred memories first before he can properly use their abilities. (I have no idea what they’re doing in the webtoon though.)

From this, you can argue that the reason why this is possible is that the more memories the other person had of Han Yoojin, the longer the memory transfer is, thus the faster the adjustment of their stats and skills. There’s more time for his body to settle into them, so with this reasoning, it’d make sense that the adjustment wouldn’t take as long compared to if the memories were too short, like with Blackie’s.

Despite the fact that Han Yoojin says that Han Yoohyun’s memories came sparsely, the memories related to him are coming from an entire lifetime’s worth—and it’s still enough for him to use his skills as skillfully as his brother himself.

Although, playing devil’s advocate here, it can also be argued that the more memories the other person has of Han Yoojin, the more easily Han Yoojin sees himself in their shoes, with their stats and abilities. In essence, having nothing to do with the speed of the memory transfer and focusing on the number of memories the other has instead.

And while I wrote this entire post, yes, the end of the first chapter indeed says,

The 3-headed red dragon looked towards my direction. Of the 3 heads, the middle one had eyes that were burnt off. Lauchtas had immense regeneration powers but it looked like it couldn’t heal from Yoohyun’s bloody injury in such a short time.

—The S-Classes that I Raised, chapter 1

In an admittedly weak defense, you can choose to believe that Han Yoohyun was that strong as a twenty-five-year-old Guild Leader (the best in South Korea before the regression), or something. Benefit of the doubt.

…or argue that the memory transfer takes less than two minutes due to this section, and that the Lauchtas is a 1st rank monster with immense regeneration powers, so logically it should be impossible for it to remain unhealed for three hours at minimum.

(There are also the interpretations that maybe Han Yoohyun may not be entirely human if his body cools and stiffens that fast, that it may have been something the author overlooked/chose to overlook, or that we simply don’t have enough information as of the publication of this post to say for sure. But the cooling of a corpse is how people know how long someone has died—it’s an entire process, and I ultimately made this post to address that interpretation with what the story’s given us because I wanted to justify my little angsty headcanon and thought it’d be fun. Also, I’d just love to have some discussion on the Final Gratitude skill in general.)

For this last section, I’ll be discussing my general thoughts on Final Gratitude. First, I’ll drop the entire selected section of his thoughts I had on the Final Gratitude skill in chapter 60 (although the entire chapter is basically about him dealing with it) for reasons involving pain and angst:

It's good that we met again like this. You guys haven't regressed so you wouldn't know my feelings, but, it actually felt dirty that all the things I suffered through disappeared. So I tried not to think about it. At any rate, the situation changed a lot, and I decided to be well-behaved at first. Above anything else, I didn't… I tried not to think about the fact that the people who I was involved with and who had died, were alive and walking around.”

It wasn't just that people I was close to died, either. Thanks to that, I lived. At the same time, I even received their memories. In front of my eyes, the corpse was there, but the memories of that person thinking of me rose up in my mind. For Yoohyun, it was a portion of his whole life's memories, so it came in sparsely, but usually, the memories right before dying came in without fail. If it was just someone I knew to a certain extent, it was still okay.

But, if that was them worrying about me, it was really circumstances that would drive you crazy.

If they were an uselessly good person, so there were only good memories. The auditory hallucinations of my name being called, didn't leave my ears for days and days. If I kept on remembering, it felt like I would die, so I purposely tried to forget.

But now they were all alive. How should I explain that feeling?

Unlike with Yoohyun, I had buried it inside for several years. Unlike with Yoohyun, now they didn't even know me.

Like those guys in front of my eyes.

Should I be happy, or sad, or say that I'm sorry, or that I'm thankful? Before that, was it okay to contact them and meet them? It was thanks to you dying that I lived.

—The S-Classes that I’ve Raised, chapter 60

Han Yoojin is a deeply traumatized man. If Final Gratitude is a skill that represents the cost of loving and supporting those he cares about, then Han Yoojin is the one that both bears and buries the scars and continues to love anyway. It’s an integral part of his character, and Final Gratitude is a skill that manifests that, especially through its required memory transfer and how that works in relation to Han Yoojin gaining their abilities.

“Final Gratitude” is also just a really fitting name for the skill, because, for those he applied the skill to, it’s an opportunity for them to reveal how they felt about him in return before he’s given their abilities, almost like a blessing, too much like a curse.

We don’t know if every level rank from Perfect Caregiver to the lowest-ranked title is given the supplementary skill “Final Gratitude.” But while the people granted it are seemingly rewarded with doubled efficiency of the abilities of the one they’ve applied the skill to, it’s appropriate that they adjust to their abilities faster the more memories they’ve had with them. It’s appropriate that they’re forced to see how they’ve been part of the other’s life and how well they’ve cared for them. After all, caretaking doesn’t really end until the one being cared for is dead.

Despite the skill’s psychological ramifications, the word “gratitude” implies a positive emotion. It means appreciation. It means thankfulness. And while Han Yoojin says, “It was thanks to you dying that I lived,” Final Gratitude lets all those who’d died, especially Yoohyun, who Han Yoojin thought hated him for eight years, say, “It was thanks to you living that I was loved.”