#i feel like everyone knows that kim dokja is suicidal. and the only thing that kept kim dokja alive was WOS. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

renren-writes · 4 months

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Honestly while I love KDJ while reading ORV, i do have to admit he’s kinda… asshole-ish here. BUT i do know it’s because we are invested in the pink thing, Dokja has always been a sort of asshole, but this time it irks me because I actually like Choi Eunbyeol and know she’s genuinely trusted him and did her best to keep him alive, only for him to be plotting her death.

It’s amusing and dreary if we were to make a comparison with Yoo Joonghyuk and his experience with a prophetess he had earnestly trusted, only for her to stab him in the back in the worst way possible because “she thought she knew better and the best path to the future and decided it was better off without Yoo Joonghyuk’s conscious help” and a whole lot of other complicated stuff i’m not gonna throw in. Because this? THIS IS KIM DOKJA AND CHOI EUNBYEOL!

Eunbyeol trusted Dokja because he was so helpful to her in the past regressions but this is just a nightmare in repeat, this is just the past repeating for Yoo Joonghyuk. Maybe she ought to understand that there were some regressions where Dokja was sincere and others where he plain out manipulated her. During these 21 regressions, which Dokja had wanted Choi Eunbyeol dead and which did not? Either way, she’s dead. And now in the 21st regression, it’s finally clear that this Dokja does NOT trust her and wishes she’s dead. Even tried pushing it.

This is realistically something Dokja would do — this is something he DID with Namwoon — and it makes my stomach churn.

I’m also honestly impressed that you were so honest with this dark and unsettling aspect of Dokja, who sometimes perhaps subconsciously treats the “characters” as pawns and will discard someone if they prove to be a liability and a “sorry excuse of a human being” (pfft as if everyone in the scenario were innocent…). Most authors just write Dokja as a pure good sacrificial suicidal bean, and he CAN be that, but at the same time there are times where he can be pretty callous, heartless, blind, selfish and downright scummy. These traits are often offset by his good, but it isn’t so fun when those are directed towards a character you like and whom you know is genuinely trying to save your life WHILE THE ONE YOU IDOLIZE IS OUT TO KILL YOU.

Honestly because Dokja is a “reader”, he sometimes gives me the feeling that he’s… not quite there. Might be because of Fourth Wall calming him, but take for example that he knows Yoo Joonghyuk so intimately because he has read his entire journey and no one is going to deny that, but here, here right now, the way he treats Yoo Joonghyuk as if “he shouldn’t be doing this, he should be killing Choi Eunbyeol” or “CEB is going to die anyway, killed by Yoo Joonghyuk” displays a degree of aloof, arrogance, dismissive ness and a kinda mastermind-like ego.

Kinda like how in Ragna Crimson, where Crimson sneers down at an unmoving Ragna who acts so familiar with him because he knows him from the future. “It pisses me off that you act so know it all with me.” or something like that.

THAT. Can get quite vexing.

And it’s at this point where we gotta reconsider… is Kim Dokja really any different from the prophetess who had betrayed Yoo Joonghyuk in his 2nd regression, at this point?

Only difference is that it was still an early stage and the other people were actively thwarting him. And perhaps he didn’t wish to make Choi Eunbyeol suffer like YJH had.

But. He wanted Choi Eunbyeol to die.

Kim Dokja acts so confident, so arrogant, in that the plot will endure as long as Yoo Joonghyuk is alive and he makes sure he doesn’t die. So much that he wants CEB dead so this pink thing will finally stop being a chaotic variable in the novel and he can continue being in control of variables as it’s reader, so that Yoo Joonghyuk can stop acting so NOT like him.

That’s a type of arrogance in itself. It makes me wish to see a world/timeline where the timeline is SCREWED because Choi Eunbyeol dies and Kim Dokja realizes his mistake started when he subconsciously started becoming like Anna Croft.

How does it end? IDK. Perhaps they meet an enemy which would’ve been resolved if CEB was alive (she’s become cheat like YJH) or something. But to my indulgent mind, a possible scenario is Yoo Joonghyuk in love and in denial until he sees Choi Eunbyeol die, and right then and there he decides that it’s a doomed timeline anyways, and decided to start over.

(Then it’s another round of angst, because Choi Eunbyeol doesn’t exist anymore after the third regression.)

this is a kickass analysis anon!!!! i will admit i'm kind of a fan of dokja's more scheming and conniving moments because i'm a big fan of bastard-type characters in general, and having him live up to his fandom nickname of rat 1 is just a fun time when writing (especially when eunbyeol had no clue up till now he was desperately wanting her dead). me and shio kinda talk about his dynamic with her a lot between chapters since it does have some parallels to yjh and anna croft in the second round, but it's also got a funny, fucky dynamic that genuinely did throw dokja for a loop in some of the previous regressions. spoilers under the cut if you're okay with them!

essentially the past kdj's that eunbyeol's met have either had trouble telling if she was a character or immediately clocked she was a character based on first impressions with her. with the round they were both thrown off the bridge, he didn't know she was a character and wasn't able to clock her as one because she was thrown after kdj and didn't hear the deciding factor that was their conversation, only had theories that she was a regressor from real life which was why she had something like Sage's Eye.

in this regression he's very positive she's a character, but a one-bit character who barely got a mention in the whole novel, which he now has a revised edition of that shows her in the 41st round! it's clued him in that something isn't right, especially since the eunbyeol of the 41st round is supposed to be a prophet, not a regressor, so this amount of stuff being so wrong with her existence at just the 3rd round is enough to warrant him putting her head on the chopping block. she has all these stolen skills and he's heard her theorise that if 4th wall hits her enough, it'll kill her dead, but now that he's got king of no killing, he has to find alternative ways -- not realising, or maybe even being fully aware and thinking they'll get over it, that the real characters he wants to invest in (aera and yjh) will have an eternal vendetta against him if he orchestrates that death in any way. he's working on the knowledge that yjh treats his companions as tools up until a certain point, believing he'll get over them dying if he can still work with the worldline in a cohesive way without them, but hasn't taken into account the amount of shit the man's gotten for doing that from his current companions wheeze

kdj is just in for the rudest of awakenings and i'm here for it!

#ren speaks #free dinner fic #absolute DELIGHT of an ask to wake up to btw thank you so much anon #love seeing y'all theorise and analyse hehehe

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katcadecascade · 4 years

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Dumplings Before this World Ends (ORV oneshot)

*spoilers up to chapter 235

Summary:

First Murim is known for their dumplings. It's a shame that Kim Dokja mostly remembers that this place is gonna be destroyed later but for right now he'll enjoy the dumplings with Yoo Jonghyuk.

Kim Dokja is a bit ashamed to admit that he has never been asked out for dinner.

As a man in modern society that clings to traditional (heteronormative) relationships, Kim Dokja attempted to ask out a few women in his life. They all declined to no one’s surprise.

It didn’t discourage him to purse romance. It just reinforced his daily solitude to keep reading Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse.

There wasn’t much else in his life to emotionally invest into.

So majority of his life is spent diverging into the words of a fictional world.

Then to everyone’s surprise, Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse became real. There is a lot to unpack there, the whole reality shaking knowledge of trying to understand how any of this is possibly and how so far Kim Dokja has not been dead.

Like permanently because he promised to his companions that he’ll come back.

Kim Dokja is still trying to make his way to them, currently preparing for the Demon King Selection. His plan right now is to get the Breaking the Sky Sword Saint on his side by shoving Yoo Jonghyuk back onto First Murin against the protagonist’s wishes.

It’s a good plan right?

So far, the only kink in the plan is the unexpected invitation to the Gourmet Association.

Oh and the fact that the Breaking the Sky Sword Saint forces Yoo Jonghyuk and Kim Dokja out of her temple to go have dinner.

[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ is ecstatic of these turn of events]

A bit dumbfounded, Kim Dokja tried to refuse all of this but instead Yoo Jonghyuk simply started walking to the town district and said one thing as if everything was normal.

“Are you coming or not?”

Kim Dokja could’ve just go back in the temple, pretend that Yoo Jonghyuk didn’t just ask him out for dinner in the rudest way possible, and remain as a dateless nobody he has always been.

After all, who would ever ask out Kim Dokja?

But this is Yoo Jonghyuk, a protagonist that he has followed and practically knows like the back of his hand.

Kim Dokja accepts the invitation and starts walking by Yoo Jonghyuk’s side.

First Murin’s nightlife is a pretty scene to witness in person. No amount of written words it has been described in the novel matches the way Kim Dokja is feeling. He feels otherworldly for stepping into this supposed fictional world, a real tourist in actuality, but as much as he enjoys the scenery is can’t help but morn.

Both he and Yoo Jonghyuk await the fated destruction of First Murim. This place of forsaken tradition is simply not to be. One day this place will fall as depicted in the original novel.

But before then, dumplings.

Yoo Jonghyuk leads them to a hole in the wall restaurant. The restaurant perfectly matches the one in the book, a small place filled with many people and yet the power of the protagonist guarantees a table in the corner for them.

A server quickly gets their order for the all-you-can-eat dumpling special and thus leaves Yoo Jonghyuk and Kim Dokja in silence. Obviously, Yoo Jonghyuk opted to stare out the window rather than the awkward shape before him.

As mentioned before, Kim Dokja has never been asked out on a date and he’s hesitant to even call this one a date. He will always be an introvert at worst and yet with Yoo Jonghyuk he feels weirdly comfortable, sort of.

Any time they’re together it was only to barely make it past a dangerous scenario.

Right now, the biggest danger is probably making it through this night with Kim Dokja’s dignity intact.

“So,” Kim Dokja idly traces the condensation on his glass of water, “how’s earth?”

What he really meant was how the others was but he already asked that back in the Demon Realm. If Kim Dokja knows anything about Yoo Jonghyuk, and he does, then small talk is the last thing the protagonist will indulge in.

Yet this is Kim Dokja and he’s known to annoy Yoo Jonghyuk.

“I wouldn’t have to tell you if did not die.”

“Look, I was fated to die.”

“By the one you love most.”

“Do you have to remind me?”

Yoo Jonghyuk’s eyebrow twitches. “I killed you.”

“It was a group effort.”

“Do you have any idea,” Yoo Jonghyuk begins hotly but like a star it dies out fast with a muttered, “…never mind.”

“Huh?”

Before Kim Dokja could question further, a server delivers them a big amount of steamer baskets. Yoo Jonghyuk wastes no time to take off the lid, releasing a puff of hot steam of the most delicious smelling dumpling ever created in a once fictional world.

As much as Kim Dokja wants to copy Yoo Jonghyuk on just happily eating the dumpling, he wants something else first.

“You were gonna say something.”

Stubbornly, Yoo Jonghyuk ate a dumpling in silence. In retaliation, Kim Dokja did the most suicidal thing he could ever do (discounting all his previous deaths of course). He stole the next dumpling Yoo Jonghyuk was aiming for.

The protagonist glares at the reader munching on the savory dumpling. It’s very good. A part of him melts at the sheer taste.

Before Kim Dokja could pick out another dumpling, Yoo Jonghyuk says something that shakes the constellation to his core.

“They miss you.”

Kim Dokja remains frozen for an impatiently long time, long enough for Yoo Jonghyuk to grab the next basket for a new set of hot dumplings.

“Bastard, why are you shocked?”

“Because I am.”

If there was another curse in mind, Yoo Jonghyuk doesn’t say it. He just studies how Kim Dokja is currently working his brain in overtime.

Truly, he is shocked because this would be the first time he has ever heard that sentiment directed towards him.

(Did his own mother ever say that to Kim Dokja?)

The concept of someone actually missing Kim Dokja has never occurred to him. It is a genuine surprise to a person lonely and new to friendships. It’s a strange detachment to reality for the reader, especially since he techniqually ‘died’ before them all.

So not only do they miss him, they have grieved for Kim Dokja.

It really is a strange idea to think about, especially since it’s Yoo Jonghyuk presenting all these facts.

Kim Dokja know that Yoo Jonghyuk can’t ever know if anyone has ever grieved for him because the moment he dies, it’s a new timeline. Meaning his friends forget all about the scenarios and sufferings, they all endured. Besides, they usually die before Yoo Jonghuk.

It’s harsh to suggest that maybe Yoo Jonghyuk and the others should get used to Kim Dokja’s death. However, Kim Dokja doesn’t think like that. Instead, he still trying to comprehend the idea that people miss him.

He who is out casted and unremarkable. He who prefers the words of a lonely book. He who has made friends in the first time in his life.

Kim Dokja died for them multiple times already with no regret… well except for this new one.

A ringing ache settles onto his heart, still struggling against these new feelings of something soft and precious.

“I’m going to see them again.” He swallows down a lump of that weird feeling, “I promised them.”

“I know,” Yoo Jonghyuk glares, “You better keep your promise.”

Kim Dokja forces a smile, ignoring the present jumble of emotions trapped inside, “Did you miss me too?”

“You bastard.” Yoo Jonghyuk’s glare is harsher than ever.

The man’s insult is a relief to Kim Dokja. This blunt rudeness is more familiar to him than the warm guilt-ridden idea that his friends miss him.

He orchestrated them to kill him. It’s a bit difficult to remember it.

Kim Dokja will die by the one he loves most.

In the end, Yoo Jonghyuk did the last blow.

Kim Dokja thinks Han Sooyoung will tease him about this ‘poetic’ event.

“I miss them too,” he finally says.

Yoo Jonghyuk stops glaring and nods.

Under his breath, Kim Dokja adds, “That includes you.’

He stuffs another dumpling in his mouth.

It took a lot of boldness to breathe that out. Kim Dokja can’t look at Yoo Jonghyuk.

Yet over Omniscient Viewpoint…

[He missed me?]

If Kim Dokja looked up from his food, he would’ve seen the smallest of smiles on Yoo Jonghyuk.

[…that bastard.]

Eventually the rest of the dumplings are gone but that warm feeling remains inside Kim Dokja.

#my fic #kim dokja #yoo jonghyuk #dokhyuk #orv fic #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint

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