#and then openly begging he be part of the jeju raid

[renren-writes]

Since you’re writing a SJW x OC fic, what are your thoughts on Jinwoo’s “canon love interest”, Cha Haein? There’s a lot of conflicted opinions regarding Haein.

Some don’t like how Jinwoo has any love interest at all, some dislike that Haein was just shoved in for no reason, others like other characters more than Haein, etc. Others also consider her best girl since she’s you know, “the canon LI”, she’s cute and powerful, she has a special thing for Jinwoo right away (he smells good to her?? idk) and also called the strongest female hunter in Korea.

Although it honestly doesn’t mean much since most of the time she’s being beaten around like the others.

at first i wasn’t big on hae-in, since she admittedly was super bland. but in retrospect she’s kind of a great character, and i wish the moment in the double dungeon where she called jinwoo her friend—the first person since his glow up to actually say out loud they considered him a friend—had been expanded on before the romance started. we see both as a hunter and as a teenager in the epilogue that she’s competitive and steadfast, never really wavering on her goals even if they hurt her (such as no longer being able to do track because of an ankle injury she didn’t get treated during a qualifier), but she also has a deep respect for people who aren’t the same rank as her but have skills in their own right? i found it neat that chi-yul, the man who’d led the party into the double dungeon in the beginning and lost his arm, was his mentor—compared to other s-rankers in the story, we rarely saw any who let anyone under an a-rank stand by their side outside of administrative roles.

but with her being the strongest female hunter in korea… i do feel like the story made her the ONLY female s-ranker in korea and the a-rankers we did see had potential—its why i wanted hani to spend a little time with yerim, who was a healer who was able to create a shield strong enough to act as cover for everyone while the warriors regrouped. overall we don’t see a lot of the female hunters but out of all of them, i think hae-in suffered the most for it. i like her and her sense of duty and her efforts, but i also don’t like how it was love at first sniff? sure, we see it’s likely a thing among those with mana sensitive noses—kei from draw sword guild wanted to get closer to hae-in, possibly romantically, because he noticed she had a sensitive nose like he did and it was their first time meeting—but hunters have only been integrated into society for ten years, so you can’t really chalk it up to hunter instincts, falling in love with someone whose mana you can’t smell.

but i do like her and seeing how she fought in the game’s trailer made me go gaga bc i love characters that have such a sleek fighting style like her?? and while hani does feel the same way as me, even acknowledging that the power fantasy did the romance dirty or could’ve gone without a romance, she doesn’t want to disrespect hae-in and acknowledges that that attraction may still exist. it’s why, in the next update, she’ll tell jinwoo to not wait for her to reciprocate his feelings—that she’ll find someone better (hae-in) and gladly attend their wedding as long as he thanks her for introducing them. (but ofc we know hani’s delusional)

#ren speaks #tldr i love hae-in but feel her potential wasnt explored #but i also have beef with the ranking system and the strongest in korea #we KNOW these people are strong but #we never see the gaps between them and jinwoo close until he outclasses them forst go #*first #sure yoonho says somethings off about jinwoo #but thats… all any of the korean s rankers say before we hit jinwoo fighting thomas #the WORLD NUMBER ONE #it was less a power creep and more a massive jump #i wouldve been so stoked to see jinwoo’s progress in comparison to the others #but it just had them silently acknowledging he jumped from e to s #and then openly begging he be part of the jeju raid #im sure the novel went into more detail but like #that was a lot of people keeping quiet that jinwoo was stronger than be presented #before gunhee found out and made an offer after his reeval