#shoves yjh to the side

[luvxiem]

THE DOKJA CAMEO IN WORLD AFTER THE FALL 😭😭😭

[nblemons]

im a genius i think

[ID: two rows of five sketchy rectangle thumbnails labeled 'awesome orv body pillow concepts (by oli nblemons)' at the top, each given a little title. in order are:

'SP + kkomas'; the secretive plotter posed on his side and half buried in the kkomas that fill up the rest of the space.

'world's most sexless YJH'; yoo joonghyuk standing stiffly with a tired expression and his sword in hand.

'YHK (all at once)'; yoohankim all piled up on each other to fit in the narrow space of the pillows proportions, with han sooyoung on top and stretching like a smug cat, kim dokja under her fighting for his life, and yoo joonghyuk barely visible but looking pissed.

'KDJ cringe'; kim dokja holding a (much sexier) body pillow of yoo joonghyuk and looking startled, like hes been caught.

'angel fujoshi'; uriel smiling happily as she shoves two plushies of kim dokja and yoo joonghyuk together to make them kiss.

'kyrgios'; a very tiny stickman with a sword that barely takes any space on the pillow.

'LHS crucifixion moment (ft JHW carry)'; two sketches that show both sides of lee hyunsung attached to a cross, with crossed out eyes, being carried on jung heewon's back. shes holding her sword and looks angry. an arrow between the two indicates that they are each a side of the pillow

'999 (ft dumpling form)'; also two sketches, one of the 999th turn yoo joonghyuk posing seductively (and exactly as seen on the pillow kim dokja held in a previous sketch), and the other a big dumpling with an eyepatch. the same arrow as before separates them. /end ID]

[metanarrates]

yjh's plan to sacrifice himself in the conclusion of the dark castle arc is such an excellent scene. it does fantastic character work in showing that the yjh of the present is NOT AT ALL the person kdj typically perceives him as, but is instead someone who cares for others to the point of self-sacrifice. rather than believing only in his own abilities, yjh now believes entirely in kdj and the rest of his companions, and trusts that they will be able to carry this world to its conclusion even once yjh is no longer in it. he's okay giving up on this timeline, knowing that his companions will care for it in his stead. he even is intuitive enough to anticipate kdj's worry that the world will disappear without yjh, and goes out of his way to obtain the correct information to reassure him. all of these are character traits that he has had all along, of course, but they've been brought to the surface BECAUSE of his interactions with kim dokja. and of course kdj himself can't see it very clearly. all of this being shown to the reader gives us very critical information to understanding both characters!

but of course, there's also a secondary purpose this scene serves to the narrative. up until now, since we are tied to kim dokja's first-person narration, we have only really seen one side of similar sacrifice scenarios. we see kdj's internal reasoning for sacrificing himself and the steps he takes to ensure his companions are as safe as possible in the process. these events are excellent at showcasing both the willing sacrifice's selflessness and their cleverness. (there are cracks of course in both for kdj, but that's much more apparent later in the novel.) the internality of a willing sacrifice is fascinating!

but because we're tied so thoroughly to his perspective, and given that he is a guy pretty good at not thinking about stuff that bothers him, we're somewhat insulated from the pain those sacrifices cause the people who he tries to save. we see characters crying and he does sit with their pain a little, but it's fundamentally from an outsider's perspective. it's almost like a punch in the face to be on the receiving end of that kind of event! yjh talking relatively gently while addressing kdj's worry that the world will disappear... it makes it worse, not better! his caring makes losing him so much more painful than it otherwise would be!

it makes the audience feel differently about kim dokja's behavior up until now. and, just as importantly, it shoves a conflict in kdj's face that he will be dealing with for the rest of the novel. receiving salvation from someone sacrificing themself, when you'd do anything to make sure they survived, is incredibly painful. he's just finished dealing with that problem with his own mother and now he's on the receiving end of his own behavior in a FAR more pointed way.

so what does he do next?

try and sacrifice himself for the sake of the party, of course. goddamn it.

[eyeswaitingfortuesdaynight]

omniscient reader's viewpoint liveblog day 2 😅 (chs. 2-6: ep. 1 - starting the paid service)

i'm going to take notes as i go for the first 120 chapters or so since i've already read it before (and also sort of re-read them via the webtoon and various fanfic)

completely forgot about the world after fall plug looool. i need catch up with the webtoon at some point for that one

kdj is so freaking awkward talking about himself and his hobbies, it's painful. compared to how he never shuts up later, it shows how comfortable he's gotten with kimcom. how uncomfortable he was with anyone in the before times

i think he's....dissassociating? has trouble mentally staying present? either way, ysa had to address him 3 times before he answered a simple question about language app, damn. this bitch is Not Alright

kdj uses 'ruined' as a search term, not 'survival' or 'survive' when looking for twsa. that's a habit, so he likely did that the first time he was searching for novels too, huh.....

when a train stops for me, i think 'mechanical issues' or 'security incident', not 'suicide'. i can't tell if this is a cultural thing or a kdj thing or both, but in any case not a good sign of mental health that that's his first and only guess

killing anyone who outwardly rebelled against the dokkaebi...pretty smart in establishing dominance tbh. and it means that any surviving incarnations are either going to be too scared to protest or too smart to voice their opinions outloud and potentially incite other incarnations into rebelling

"If you want to enjoy happiness, it is common sense to pay a price." - 😬

'Department Head Han pulled out his business card as people cheered him on.' - this was very 'and everyone stood up and clapped' energy, but irl, crying

'Finally, I slowly controlled my breathing.' -meaning he wasn't controlling his breathing before? a point in favour of kdj having therapy in the before times, but idk. i feel like kdj DOESN'T have 4th wall yet. he's not 100% chill about the scenarios happening......it's suspicious that he's actually narrating his emotional reactions at this point and having to work at being calm instead of just telling himself to calm down

i didn't expect or remember that matrix ref lol. now all i can picture is hsy shoving the red pill down kdj's mouth and telling him to wake the fuck up

lhs.....so earnest..................also pretty sure the seoul dome doesn't go up until after the 1st scenario is complete if lhs is still getting messages on his phone

with all these political assassinations...i wonder if the dokkaebi got rid all of the nuclear weapons and such too. just to make sure they don't interfere the scenarios. bihyung's comments show that some research can be done and the existence of the disaster of questions is proof the dokkaebis have observed earth for at least some time now. the 4th and 5th scenarios were designed too specifically not have had extensive research beforehand

'Subconsciously, I made a fist using all my strength.' - that one arthur meme 😂

ljh ...... 😭😭😭😭😭

'confused for a moment' 'stunned for a moment' - HIGHKEY BELIEVING HE DOESN'T HAVE 4TH WALL

interesting that kdj doesn't even think of opening his attribute window until after he gets his mysterious attribute (maybe 2nd?).....almost like he didn't have the 4th wall to help him block his profile and also calm him down enough to think of it beforehand...............

if yjh is in car 3707....and the rest of the gang are in 3807.....who the fuck is the pale guy mentioned to be in 3907? throwaway line? typo? side story tie-in?????

knw......i know thematically he has to die here but also goddamn it would have been so funny to have him tag along and become part of kimcom. kdj picking up all the teen rivals lol

"Think carefully. The world you have known so far has just ended." - pretty sure kdj says something similar later. ~thematic parallels~ .....also i need to find that teen!kdj au fic as soon as i finish reading the novel, i have been dying to read it

...poor grandmother. what an awful way to live your last few minutes before you die.

kdj would have been so fucked if this wasn't a round where yjh killed everyone in his car with an explosion.

lgy is crying, oh nooooooo 😭😭😭😭

'The locusts and grasshoppers were jumping around in the collection net.' - insects, not just grasshoppers. this coupled with knw's uniform makes me think it's late summer/early fall....i need to lookup the korean school calendar later to be sure, but i don't get the impression it'll be winter anytime soon

'Right now, I was facing the explosive madness that tried to kill the grandmother yet a smile emerged on my face. Why? Even in this breathtaking tension, why was my heart beating with joy?' - adrenaline and having control for the first time in your life maybe

i always wondered who the 2nd constellation wanting knw was........

also wondering if knw would have joined the military asap after finishing school

man wouldn't it have been so funny if one of the grasshopper eggs slipped out of kdj's hand and knw stepped on it and he passed the 1st scenario anyway???

i know knw is a total homicidal weirdo ....but he didn't have to go like that 🥺

kdj doesn't recognize his own face....doesn't notice there's no actual blood on it......feels like he's looking at a novel......is it dissassociation, the 4th wall, or maybe it's maybelliene

'…And I was the only reader who knew the ending of this world.' - what a dramatic ending to those chapters. fitting as well!

[getougender]

ok i lied i’m making it now.

anyway pov you are getou suguru, twenty-eight, and the only thing that’s kept you from snapping and committing a felony at your place of work that you fucking hate is the webnovel equivalent of pulp. it sucks so bad that you are the only reader, but no matter what, it just draws you back in, over and over again. you’ve been reading it since you were fifteen and you could barely stand the protagonist at first, but he’s grown on you like mold. he’s cocky and ruthless and fun to read about, even if he’s a little cliché. you’ve been waiting for the conclusion of the novel for a long-ass time, and the day it’s scheduled to drop, it…doesn’t. instead you get a dm, and then the world fucking ends. you realize with a start that it’s familiar. you have been isekai’d, reverse-isekai’d, isekai’d sideways while rolling down the highway in a loose tire, and then you hear gojou fucking satoru, protagonist, blowing a hole in the side of the next subway car. what the fuck. is this your life forever now. before the day ends you have thrown a punch at your childhood blorbo and he has dropkicked you off the side of a building. you survive. you will beat his ass.

anyway jokes and jests aside getou’s mindset after riko’s death is something that i could see translating really interestingly into kdj’s role, especially early on. he’s depressed and angry and resentful towards the world, but riko isn’t dead (here, at least; i was serious when i said she and sys would go really well), he hasn’t been carrying the mantle of “the strongest” around, and he still has a very strong moral code throughout canon—it just. uh. changes forms, to put it extremely generously—so here, he’d probably still strive to do what he perceives to be The Right Thing, which could be comparable to kdj’s stupid fucking savior complex. i’m not sure how he would approach his knowledge of what’s going to happen according to the story vs how kdj would or how jjk’s world could be neatly integrated into orv’s premise with scenarios without making it a copy of orv, but he could absolutely pull off some of the bullshit that kdj (and, for that matter, hsy) does with a straight face. also, kdj’s ability to cobble together stories and a whole-ass body for himself reminds me of how getou’s technique grows and changes with the curses he eats, so i’m jotting that down too.

my thoughts on gojou are a lot more straightforward. ridiculously op protagonist with massively destructive abilities, etc etc, but yjh being, as i said, hellbent on bringing down the star stream reminds me a lot of gojou’s hatred of the higher ups and the flaws in jujutsu society. gojou is less likely to try and brute force his way through every obstacle (he still can; don’t get me wrong), though, and his desire to protect people/live up to his role as The Strongest/preserve youth is actually something i associate closer to kdj. that being said, i can see him regressing over and over to see the conclusion and Fix Things very easily and it’d be really interesting to see how the whole shebang with 41!sys, secretive plotter, and the other outer gods plays out, especially given the way he seems to approach grief in canon.

shouko. man. shouko. i think about that line where hsy calls joongdok bastards during the final scenario fight and how they never tell her anything a lot, and then i think about shouko saying that she was there too, and then i throw up. but shouko’s neutrality during the kfc breakup is something i think is so interesting and i think could play a part in the whole good and evil scale that orv has going on, especially when they start to mess with it, and i think it says a lot about her, too. i think that, when push comes to shove and she’s run out of options, i could see her adopting something of 1863!hsy’s role—stepping up and finding her own conclusion when the protagonist goes awol and then, later, writing the things she’s lost and clawing at them to bring them back to her. i think her grief is quiet for a long time before it boils over, and that’s when she starts destroying universes. in a similar vein, like i said, i think it’s SO neat that she’s one of the few people we know with a reverse cursed technique that can be used on other people and how she works in a morgue. she’s the beginning and the end, and she could create and destroy worldline after worldline and start and finish the story. and she’s a doctor. her job is to save people. what else should she have done, seeing one of her closest friends as a teenager in a hospital bed?

in conclusion i’m obsessed with trios and the fact that the three of them are a Set never fails to make me want to eat drywall. i have more thoughts on this but it’s also almost 3:30 and i have work in the morning

jjk orv au sashisu inspired by yoohankim. gojou, the protagonist. shouko, the writer. getou, the reader.

this story is for that one reader. tell me you fool. i want to live in a big house with everyone. getou as kim dokja with his patchwork vessel found in the dumpster in the industrial complex arc. swapping names. we’re the strongest. gojou as the unstoppable protagonist hellbent on bringing down the stars. oldest dream arc. shouko as han sooyoung, director of the false last act. the fuckingn story repair scenes. everything begins and ends with them DO YOU UNDERSTAND. DO YOU UNDERSTAND. ARE YOU PICKING UP WHAT I AM PUTTING DOWN ARE YOU SEEING WHAT I AM SHOWING YOU