#t50btsff

[charmedseoull]

House of Cards by sugamins Review (contains spoilers)

This review discusses an 18+ work. Please read at your own discretion.

House of Cards by sugamins is an exhilarating thriller that is jam packed with moral questioning and an affirmative grasp on adult content. Its descriptions are laced with accuracy from an author who pays attention to every tiny detail.

When reading House of Cards, I was enraptured by its concept and storytelling. The Neo-Seoul setting is painted as a bottomless pit of drugs, sex, and violence. Readers and characters themselves feel helpless to where the truth of what happens beneath the eyes of society is shoved to their faces involuntarily. I adored the way the story sucked you into this world that’s loosely based on our own reality. There’s many quotes and observations from the characters that can eerily remind you of reality’s own issues.

Many fanfics don’t tackle these larger than life subjects, at least in a way that is this satisfying and coherent. House of Cards deserves its spot as the second most read English work on Archive of Our Own. Its writing, although wordy, fleshes out moral concepts in a way that isn’t romanticized or dismissive. There are multiple times when reading this fanfic where I had to stop and process a line or phrase. This fanfic is an experience of true entertainment that deserves a read when you have time to truly observe it.

In the beginning, its protagonist Kim Taehyung offers a point of view and introduction into the gangster world that readers can follow closely. Readers develop with Taehyung, witnessing him spiral into the world and eventually become desensitized to it. He loses a part of himself when he is in Haedogje Pa and at the end of the story is no longer so set in his moral beliefs. House of Cards brings up the same questions again and again: What is right? What is wrong? Can something be both? These questions are simple, but the situations the story puts Taehyung in allows us to question the true answers to them. The story frames these questions and concepts in a way that isn’t contrived as well with sugamins having a solid vision of where the story will go with them. Park Jimin is a character that has these moral questions thrust upon him unwillingly. In the story, he is but a victim to the entire world of Haedogje Pa. Unlike Taehyung, who chose to enter the world on an undercover mission, and Jeon Jungkook, who was born into the world as its rightful heir, Jimin did not choose to enter the world. He was stolen off the streets against his will. His perspective in the story introduces a contrast that engages readers to question the roles of each character.

Kim Taehyung is our protagonist with no real antagonist except society itself and a character that’s built up towards the end but eventually killed. However, Taehyung does bad things. We’re supposed to root for him, but he tortures a man, kills another, and threatens one that we grow close to as readers heartlessly. Then, take Park Jimin. As readers, he gets all our sympathy as an involuntary participant in the world. He’s taken advantage of sexually and never has something genuine happen to him. Hidden agendas plague the characters with our protagonist himself having an extensive one that works to take down the entire gangster world. Jimin never has a hidden agenda. He seeks love and comfort, indulging in designer clothing and an exotic animal as a pet. Even with all the luxuries around him, he doesn’t live for those. He lives for the knowledge that he cared for and safe. Readers themselves don’t come to terms with that until the end of the story. 

The one genuine thing that happens to Jimin is in the second to last chapter. Here, he’s the breaking point of the entire operation and has to deliver the hard drives with evidence to convict Jungkook. There’s this heartbreaking moment where he’s in the penthouse apartment by himself, downing pills and trying to gain the courage to go through with his actions. It’s a moment that hurts as a reader as we’ve witnessed his struggles and have gotten to understand his backstory. There is deep pain and trauma within him, but then he does it. He enters into police custody with the hard drives and exits the world of Haedogje Pa. In that scene, this is where the genuine thing happens. One of the side characters named Sungah comforts him in this hard to read moment. She offers him a plushie and he denies at first, but then accepts it. There’s a tonal shift in this scene that takes us out of Haedogje Pa and back into reality. It's a sobering effect that affects the rest of the chapter with the eventual arrest of Jungkook and end of the operation.

The dialogue in House of Cards is impactful as well. There’s so many lines in the story that hit and invigorate me. Sometimes they drive me up a wall with how wrong they sound or they strike a nerve and push me to the ground. If House of Cards were a television show, I can imagine the camerawork and music playing as characters say things. The most powerful lines have to be at the beginning and end of the story. In the beginning, they set the tone especially all of Kim Namjoon’s lines that, if you follow and know BTS, are filled with wisdom and experience and warning of what’s to come from the story. Then in the end, the lines act like they are closing a book or flipping a page. They make readers move on from the story which has given them more than enough to ponder in its 25 chapters.

I’m a skimmer to a fault when it comes to stories. Long descriptions of scenery and appearance bore me and that’s just the reality of what I like as a reader. However, I found House of Cards’ wordy writing grasping me by the throat and keeping my eyes glued to each word. I absorbed every detail voraciously because it kept it so interesting. If you skim, you miss out on all these tiny details in the descriptions or nods sugamins puts in the story. The BTS members’ habits like how Taehyung licks his lips is put into the story seamlessly where you don’t recognize it. Usually I notice those things, but House of Cards makes those habits and nods its own. 

I could do an entire breakdown of House of Cards’ writing conventions and details, but I don’t want to keep you here all day. This story is wonderful. It’s deep, rich, and captured my attention like no other. That comes from someone who's been inhaling novels since a young age and studies them to no end. House of Cards is not only a fanfic, but it is an experience. 

Its adult themes are written with care and I love every bit of its story direction. Its ending is the best part where all this build up pays off in a way that’s unsatisfying. I love that dissatisfaction. Do Taehyung, Jimin, and Jungkook truly love each other? In the words of sugamins herself in the interview I did with her, “I didn’t want House of Cards to be seen as a romantic story when I created it. If readers see it that way, they are more than entitled to their own interpretations. I cannot tell them how they can interpret my art, that is not my role as the creator.” 

This fanfic is a must read if you can handle its themes and are of age to read it. It's a heavy read though and even if you go into it with the intention of keeping it casual, I assure you that its writing and world will suck you right in. I love House of Cards and I can’t say that enough.

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Thank you for reading this review. You can read House of Cards here. You can read the interview I did with sugamins here. Then, of course, feel free to follow me to see more of the work I do.

[charmedseoull]

Day 16: I was only going to put this in my private notes for the day, but I felt the need to share my thoughts in the public notes. I truly hope each writer I contact or read or discuss for the T50BTSFF Ao3 project truly knows how their work has affected people. These writers inspire and motivate others to write and create. Honestly I’ve put off researching on other authors until I read their fanfics so I don’t cloud my judgement or find something upsetting. As a member of the fanfiction community, I’ve seen many things. I experienced the Dirty Laundry Klance incident in 2016 firsthand and felt the after effects of the Hamilton cannibal mermaid incident. I’ve seen authors rise in popularity and get slashed down and harassed by those who though they were morally right. I have many fears when coming into this project, but I’ll only share one here. The rest are in my private notes, which will be publicly published in 5 years. I fear the truth. Some people, after they’ve written fanfiction, do not want to be found again or ever talk about their work again. I respect such, but I fear it. In this moment in time, it is one of the only moments I can be doing this. Many of the authors and readers from 2016-2017, which is where a majority of the T50 are from, could have moved on or are extremely hard to track down. Even in some of my notes, I am omitting information to protect the identities and my own private life. I am just an anonymous collector of information and I wish history to respect that. My analysis and documentation should be shared publicly if possible, but there’s a lot to respect and move on from. Personally, I find that I’m at the right place at the right time. We need to start documenting these fanfics now because if we wait any later, it’ll be too late. I’m already planning on releasing some essays and writing pieces about the BTS fanfiction culture, general fanfiction culture, and some of the commonalities in the T50BTSFF. Already, I’ve found that a majority of the fanfics are explicit. In the T50BTSFF Ao3 project, I’ll be including both complete and incomplete works. So in the end, I might not actually do only 50 fanfics.

From there, I might move on to do T100, but let’s wait on that decision. Also, there’s an entire drabble collection in the T50 that I’ll probably do individual notes on for each drabble. Here’s some observations about the T50:

-A majority of the works were started in 2017 or 2020 -> Indication of rising and falling popularity in fanfiction reading culture. 2017 = BTS’s first spike in popularity into the west with DNA. 2020 = COVID-19 Pandemic, people have more time to read and write.

-Majority of the works contain sexual content -> Displays BTS’s older userbase, sexualization of gay relationships, gay fetishization, there’s been people who’ve written about this MLM phenomena in fanfiction already and I’ll probably write my own piece on it at the end of 2021.

-Taekook is a majority of the fics for the T50 -> Most popular ship in the fandom, obsession, fan behavior analysis will have to do later

-Most popular ship combination is Taekook, Yoomin, Namjin

I’m going to have to read some things I’m uncomfortable with for this project. I’m okay with that. Some of these word counts are pushing 600k though, so I’m going to have to start keeping a more consistent reading schedule. Also some of these fanfictions have sequels, which I’ll also be reading and including in the project. Overall, the T50BTSFF Ao3 project should have both the T50 when searching for All Works and for Complete Works Only. I’m going to see how I feel at the end of 2021 before deciding if I should do the T50BTSFF on Wattpad or not. I’m determined to follow through with this project. Even if I disappear for a bit because of real life, I will return. On 11:59 of December 31st, 2021, I will take one last inhale and submit the last fully complete Fanlore page for the 50th most hit BTS fanfic on Ao3. Then at midnight, I will exhale and find my project done. It will happen, I will manifest it into being. I promise this to myself and whoever may read this in the future that I will finish this project. Nothing in the world can stop me. After the project is done, I will carry on maintenance for the pages for as long as I can. In this moment in time that God or whichever higher power has given me because of quarantine, I will use it to its fullest and make a mark in history for fandom. I say this to an empty crowd, but be prepared. I will help fandom history make our mark.

(Day 23 repost onto Tumblr)

[charmedseoull]

Day 12: I’m still reading tStS. I’m trying to work on ways to form my statistics for the T50BTSFF project. Probably pie charts will work the best to present my information. I’m going to start introducing my project to fanfiction and ao3 subreddits soon. That is all for today

(Day 23 repost onto Tumblr)

[charmedseoull]

Day 23: I haven’t been putting many updates here because I’ve been working on analysis of some fanfics. Currently, I’m working on for for Imprints (for the boys in the back) by Anna(arctic_grey) and for House of Cards by sugamins. The Songbird and the Sea has been hard to find the time and motivation to finish. I need to finish it soon. Maybe by tonight if I’m feeling up for it. Right now I’m sort of in an analyzing sort of mood, so I’ll be writing what I can. I really want to do formal reviews and breakdowns of these stories, but I think after the T50BTSFF Ao3 project I’ll only choose a few that have the most for me to delve into then go from there.

[charmedseoull]

Day 15 (Part 1): Someone edited the Imprints and Magnitude Fanlore stub page I made and I am overwhelmed with emotion that they did that. I’m going to work on that page as a side project because Imprints and Magnitude by artic_gray means so much to me as a reader. It’ll be a side project from the T50BTSFF project. Maybe I’ll just document Namjin fanfiction there. There’s some that I really want to make sure get pages on Fanlore, especially Imprints and Magnitude plus landscapes like our hearts. They’re not read by many, but they hold immense meaning to me. And kind of selfishly, I want them to be documented and talked about more. They’re very meaningful works to me that encapsulate fanfiction so rawly and the Namjin dynamic so well.

(Day 23 repost onto Tumblr)

[charmedseoull]

Day 14: I sent the first interview email for the T50BTSFF project today. I’m still clearing my head for tStS. I need to start collecting data to make graphs appropriately

(Day 23 repost onto Tumblr)

[charmedseoull]

Day 13 (Part 1): I need to kind of reset and clear my mind before delving back into tStS. I’ve stopped researching and won’t continue until after I’ve read all of it as to not cloud my judgement. I’m not sure if the author is transphobic, has changed from such, or where the claims come from at all. I will know in due time, but until then I will try to read tStS as clearly as possible without judgement. I’m still enjoying it and taking notes about the writing of the story itself. I have these public diary format entires that you’re reading now on Twitter and Tumblr, but I’m going to start keeping private notes as well to document my struggles. I will release all of those notes once I am done with the T50BTSFF project in a mass note page. I’m beginning to contact more people for interviews now. I’ve gotten in contact with HoC’s author and I’m contacting fanfic authors and readers from 2016-2017 through Tumblr. I need to pick up on my reading more.

(Day 23 repost onto Tumblr)

[charmedseoull]

Day 10 (Part 4): I might start documenting statistics for the T50BTSFF Ao3 Project as well. I’m only just beginning but I could probably pull out a How many times Jimin is put into a sub/uke/fragile/feminized role bar graph and I wouldn’t be surprised by the statistics. I’ll most likely document things such as main characters, supporting characters, etc etc. That’s something I’ll have to work out.

(Day 23 repost onto Tumblr)