Not that knowledgeable about CNovels or the svss fandom in general, so take this with a grain of salt, but maybe people are used to considering it in the context of other "System Novel Genre" tropes, in which "The System is a sentient entity" and "The System is a malicious force" are both an actual thing. Like anything from an AI in a virtual reality to interdimensional entity that uses it's players to colonize planets and rob life energy(yes, I've seen both).
Oh yeah, I'm a little vague on how the System conceit normally interfaces with the transmigration genre, but this is vaguely the impression I had, thank! Mxtx obviously wasn't going to use any element that wasn't already deeply conventional if not outright cliche in this, since that would fuck with the texture, so even if I don't recognize a specific cliche there's usually the outline of its shape to bite on. Appreciate the more clarification.
The planet-eating one is way more interesting than the virtual reality imo but ig I'm super burned out on 'it was all a dream' variants lmao.
But like, the System is clearly conscious because targeted spite is definitely a function of personhood, and it might be malevolent considering how much satisfaction it seems to get from just, fucking with its principal, it's just. Those are diegetic facts in the same way 'Luo Binghe is a dangerous crazy person' is a fact, and that's not a bad or incorrect way to engage with the story, obviously.
But like. Luo Binghe as stallion protagonist, as villain protagonist, and as romance novel main love interest are intrinsically wound up in his lunacy. Approaching him on an exclusively in-universe basis is a very fun lens (and even one of the points/main jokes of the book I think lmao) but it's completely inadequate to compass his character, and its structure and point.
You know? You're not doing anything useful with this fictional character if your analysis totally ignores the way his existence is in dialogue with the concept of a genre convention.
This story is of the kind that is about the nature of telling stories--a particular subset of stories in its particular publishing context--and the constraints placed on writer and character by the demands of genre and audience, not to mention narrative structure and the tricks played by perspective and expectation. (The structural bait and switch of the entire character of Tianlang-jun kills me.) The climactic scene penny-drop involves the System having reassigned the target audience as female.
'Women want a different kind of fuck book.' That's the plot. Like. Rip. 😂
The System does exist as a force and consciousness within the book, and it's important that it knows what it's doing is cruel and likes that, but artistically speaking if it were meant to be perceived as a character I'm pretty sure it would be approached less as a force of nature.
There's a horrid person in there in some way, and our leading man's consistent failure to perceive that deserves its own essay, but functionally it's doing 'nature, malevolent, inexorable, and artificial' in man-versus-nature, and winning, which is like. Just a really fun flavor even before you do the step-out to its boundary-blurring role of acting in the name of the reader.
Hi Hamliet! Just curious, have you came across any novels/ non-fic that had a great influence on your conception of love (romantic/familial/friendship) Sorry if I’m being vague here haha, what I meant was books that sort of made you think deeper about what love is or isn’t, and it’s various forms (although this is also subjective).
Oh definitely! Hmmm. Honestly too many to count but:
Urasawa's Monster (Nina and her brother)
Vampire Academy & Bloodlines (romantic and platonic)
The Brothers Karamazov (familial, platonic, and romantic; it covers them all)
The Idiot (particularly the Myshkin-Nastasya-Aglaia triangle, wherein I think the traditional interpretation is incorrect)
Crime and Punishment (Raskolnikov's empathy and the empathy others have for him)
Attack on Titan (yes, really. I don't think Yams is a great romance writer. I don't think he handled how most of the characters related to Eren very well. But I do think the central thesis exemplified in Mikasa's character--that even if Eren had to be stopped, even if he destroyed 80% of the world, she would never wish he didn't exist because she loved him--is something powerful. True love transcends time and space and morality).
TGCF by MXTX ("what matters is you, and not the state of you" is something I repeat to myself sometimes lol)
The Bible (lmao, I know, but--I really like the overall thesis that God loved the world and human beings so much that he became one of us to save us from death. The story is beautiful).
Of course, there are many love stories I think are beautiful. The one in Titanic, MDZS, SVSS, QJJ, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Romeo & Juliet (fight me cynics), 2ha, even Harry Potter with its portrayal of loving a deceased parent and learning to feel their love in the world around you. Too many to count and I know I'm forgetting some.