#sing shong are a brilliant writer

[cyndaquillt]

Briefly taking a break from mourning the end of the 73rd Demon Realm to appreciate Sing-Shong's use of pov in storytelling. KDJ's 'death' somehow hit harder/different at the hands of the outer god when seen from Jung Heewon's perspective and I realized, that despite him dying multiple times so far and despite reading about his companions' pain during those times, I didn't feel a trauma of this level because I was still reading through KDJ's perspective. He always has a card up his sleeve and getting an in into his mind eases some tension for me as a reader. The third floor of the demon castle was particularly stressful because 1) it hadn't appeared in the TWSA that KDJ had read so we couldn't be so sure of what he was gonna do, 2) 'Fate' was built up to be this inevitable thing that despite believing KDJ would have something up his sleeve, it was mostly unknown as to what would happen when Fate gets realized. I felt a dread of the unknown and pain for the people KDJ was leaving behind.

With the Outer God moving in to devour the 73rd Realm and reading it through Jung Heewon's perspective, I genuinely felt trauma. Despite there being foreshadowing of what he would do, I was genuinely not sure if KDJ did have anything up his sleeve this time. And this strong, even footing that reading from KDJ's pov had provided me so far was turned into a bumpy ride in a just a few chapters with HSY's pov of her nightmares and LSY's fortune telling, Breaking the Sky Sword Saint and Kyrgios' pov of their inability as transcendents to deal with the Outer God, and finally, the nail in the coffin was JHW's pov that really conveyed the helplessness Kimcom feels every single time KDJ chooses to sacrifice himself alone. It's never 'Oh he's dying again, he'll probably come back. Get used to it'. It's experiencing the death of a dear friend right in front of your eyes again and again and again in excruciating ways. And each time you think, "I'll save him next time" or "I'll be there to die with him next time" or "I'll protect him so that he never has to do it again" and each time that chance is robbed from you as you helplessly watch him die and leave you behind. That trauma adds up and it scars, you never get used to it and JHW's pov conveys that impeccably.

Then we flip back to KDJ's perspective and Secretive Plotter asking him about all the worlds he couldn't save. And KDJ meeting 1863rd round YJH and recalling his middle school years and making notes in the back of his notebook about how he would change YJH's story if TWSA became real and then realizing 1863rd YJH would be hopeless. KDJ also helplessly watched/read/experienced as YJH died and lived countless lives. He didn't have the luxury of thinking "I'll save him next time" or "I'll be there to die with him next time" or "I'll protect him so that he never has to do it again" because YJH was a fictional character and a "Fourth Wall" (heh) does protect him from that level of excessive immersion as a reader. But now that TWSA is very very real KDJ can save him, protect him, die with him, etc. But in the course of it all, he makes his friends, including YJH, experience all the pain and trauma of seeing their friend die time and time again while he continues to save YJH the pain of countless deaths.

Really masterful sequences of pov switching to build this broader picture of KDJ's sacrifice and what it means.