#did I finish orv or did it finish me?

[m2kdj-waist-connoisseur]

ORV aka one of the greatest love stories I've ever read

The title says it all, our beloved novel is one of the greatest love stories written and it doesn't belong to the romance genre (as far as I know anyway).

I won't go in to heavy detail but this has a lot of spoilers (you've been warned)

I see ORV as a love story of many.

It's a love story of a man whose love for reading webnovels consumed his life, became his reason to keep moving forward, his reason to survive, his reason to protect and his reason to die. He valued the lives of characters more than his and deemed his suffering minor compared to theirs. He would throw his life away, even trying to take it with his hands, if it meant they would live happily because he wanted them to be happy (even if he couldn't be part of that hapiness).

The love story of a writer that wrote for a single reader even when it seemed impossible. A writer that would sacrifice the world for her reader if it meant he would survive and live to see another day.

A love story between a sword and shield. They were brought together because of a reader, fought together, suffered together and inevitably separated by their memories of said reader.

A love story between a mother and child with common enemies known as 'shared suffering', 'lack of comunication' and 'misunderstanding'. The mother that sacrificed her life for her son, that sold her life story in hopes of protecting him, that treasured every story he told when he visited and was hurt that a fictional character was the one her son loved most but grateful said character helped him survive when she couldn't. The son that felt betrayed by his mother and came to resent her but fought with all he had to keep her alive and well.

The love story of a protagonist that lived for his companions. A protagonist that sacrificed his limbs, mind and life to protect the people he cared about. He was ready to become a demon king, fated to die at the hands of his companions, if it meant they would get to the conclusion. A man that loved his sister and wished to protect her with all he had even when she appeared in his life without any warning.

The love story of companions that would forsake their comfort, cross world lines and give up all they had to save each other. They found strength in hope and when they were out of hope, they became each others' strength and reason to keep going.

*falls to my knees* THERE'S SO MUCH LOVE IN THIS NOVEL I CAN'T TYPE IT ALL

I'll just end this with some of my favourite quotes (I spent an hour searching for these babies)

"Kim Dokja had learned how to live from this man. This man was my father; my brother; and my oldest friend."

"This story is for just that one reader."

"That man is the world I wish to save."

"Even then, you only chose to read and nothing else. ...Because that is our way of living. You acted, and I read you doing it."

"Not everything can be expressed in sentences."

"I just wanted to say it once. I don't think I've ever told you before."

"I love you, Heewon-ssi."

"If this story can really save you...If you regained just a litle of your memories and remember us just one more time...Then I'l keep writing the epilogue for you until the end of time, for eternity."

"I lost the safety pin. I thought that I shouldn't lose it again."

"Tell me, you fool. If I continue to regress, will I ever get to meet you again?"

"I looked at Yoo Jonghyuk's miserable face and thought: Don't worry Yoo Joonghyuk. I'll do the rest. You stop and rest."

"Demon King of Salvation. I shall pray that you may continue to exist somewhere, too."

"Just because I will forget about them, that doesn't mean they'll suddenly stop existing. They definitely continue to live in this world."

"Yoo Joonghyuk smiled faintly."

"If you get a chance to run again, do you believe you can see it better the next time?"

"Because of your story, I was able to survive until now."

"Even then, this was the story Kim Dokja dearly wished to create."

"And fortunately enough, this story happened to be the one I loved the most."

"In the end, to every human being, the most precious thing was themselves. And Kim Dokja risked everything of his, always."

#omniscient reader’s viewpoint #orv #kim dokja #orv is not for the week #I fought the urge to cry while typing this and won #ORV IS A LOVE STORY THAT IS VERY DEAR TO ME #I love and hate myself for reading orv #did I finish orv or did it finish me?

[buqbite]

Doodles for @rusquared and @demonlike-judge-of-fire <3

#I FINISHED THEM HOPE YOU LIKE EM #I spent the entire day translating sclasses chapters I did literally nothing else. I will now continue to do so until 6am #Anyways uriel's flag says team dokhyuk #orv #omniscient readers viewpoint #orv uriel #secretive plotter #demon like judge of fire #orv spoilers #my art #Honestly man what happens if you've got orv spoilers blacklisted and you're following me? #Like all of my orv art is spoilery. Your experience of my art would be [REDACTED] followed by a doodle of [REDACTED] and another [REDACTED]

[chasing-after-the-abyss]

Sometimes y'just gotta… what even happened here.

#orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv spoilers #HSY deserves an award for actually maintaining a full circular timeloop #meanwhile KDJ and YJH are just like 'there are two of me and we both kept the trauma in the divorce (with ourselves)' #two KDJ in one story is how you get 'Apostle of Eternity and Epilogue' #I think both are true #It's just the narrative that has to finish with one or another #the 'system' if you will #meanwhile two YJH is just him being stubborn enough to break the narrative so he can get a happy ending (TWO happy endings) #good job man you were written to break the system and you did it #SP and OD need to get themselves an extra HSY copy to really complete the symmetry but there aren't any because she's too well adjusted! #DID NOT THINK YOU WOULD WIN THAT AWARD HSY #my posts

[auuwmk]

Kim Dokja being "ugly" having some sort of narrative significance will never not be insane to me

#LIKE I DIDN'T REALIZE UNTIL SOMEONE POINTED IT OUT???? #SING SHONG YOU GENIUS #THIS ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATES ME!!!! #I thought it was weird after finishing the novel that they never mentioned the 4th blurred his face #Oh em gee why did i not notice??? #orv #orv spoilers #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kim dokja #mee yaps

[karizipan]

mew year old orv stuff

#orv #rizdoodads #not tagging it as anything else I'm too lazy #1st image inspired by the fic ever act of creation by lemongrasslesbian its saur waw #<- gives me strength and life #THE TEENY BOX of two characters in the 1st image btw are yjh as punisher and Yoo Mia #<- that one was inspired by soguhrtss yoo siblings punisher post which changed the trajectory of my life forever tbh #the 2nd image consists of sys ljh and lgy!! #emm 4th image ignore how shitty it looks KEHEIDFJQOW I THREW IT IN HERE VERY MEH ABT IT #OH OH tidbit of commentary I was listening to Patchwork staccato during that hence emm yjh is holding scissors and the thread #I mean the thread could have deeper meaning which idk its open interpretation wooo #5th image is just a quick ref thing for yjh and punisher it has a background and all that bc I did not like staring at it with a white bg #6th image!!! Yeah it's a redraw of the 12th night yoohankim thing I did... it's also pretty old now... And I haven't finished it at allwjrj #okay that's enough from meeee

[duu-kiwi]

[your modifier is demon king of salvation]

#finished ep188 and not feeling okay #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #omniscient reader #kim dokja #yoo joonghyuk #kdj #yjh #orv fanart #someone give them how to cope for dummies #fanart #repost bc i forgot to put my name oopsie #listening mitsiki while finishing this did something to me #joongdok #kdj x yjh #myart

[ryxkenkxgami]

anyways you ever just think about orv and how the strongest theme throughout the novel is love for yourself, for other people, and for stories, and how the entire point of it all is that nobody needs a reason to love anyone, or anything, or any reason, and everything is equally as worthy of love? that no matter how much you might hate yourself, not be able to see a future for yourself, you are worthy of love just as fiercely and strongly as you love other people? that nobody needs a reason to love anything, or anyone, and that includes you?

and that the stories we all love and connect with, that we hold dear to us, can so easily be vehicles to forging new bonds? that it’s just another way for humans to connect to other humans, through shared interests and ways of understanding the world? that stories, and art in general, is just another way for people to express and show love? 

#sometimes i think about orv and i get so emotional i start crying #this is not new nor do i expect it to stop considering its been 10 months since originally finishing it now #i talk a lot about how deeply orv impacted me as a person #but i genuinely don't think a single piece of media barring like. vrains. #has ever made me think of myself the way orv did #it was really an interesting combo for me #bc i see so much of myself in kdj for so many reasons #i've talked before about how our childhood trauma is similar #and how we both coped in the same way #so that + the overall message and themes in the novel #and the emphasis put on how much the story loves it reader #idk. it really got to me. #i don't think any single piece of media means as much to me. #even vrains i think comes second overall #which is. whew. #mitzi.txt

[hxlcyon]

chanting to myself that the faster i finish my tasks, the sooner i can get back to reading orv

#i had to stop because i got SUPER busy but also #i was reading so fast that i didnt know what the fuck was going on but also i did but also #etc etc #also i think im not emotionally ready to finish orv LMAO #im only like.. if i recall i think my last chapter was like 476 or so? #so if the whole series is like 551 chapters im like #75 chapters or so away from finishing #which like isnt much at all and i dont want to finish it HAHA #a part of me is worried that like the ending isnt going to be what i want it to be #which like? doesn't make sense because i dont know what i even want it to possibly be #anyway #ammy liveblogs the orv clown show

[1800-page-not-found]

Hi! Glad to see an ORV writer. They seem to be a very rare breed. Like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Anyhow, as you might have guessed. I have an ORV request for you. I got sort of inspired by that vampire. How about having our reader being a phoenix? Ya know the mythical immortal firebird? With the related powers? Like how would KDJ and YHJ react to their “s/o” being one? Like say they seemingly ‘died’ but then ina red flash of flames they are instantly revived, completely healed.

School is starting soon which means my updates are gonna be even scarcer lol

Kim Dokja, Yoo Joonghyuk (seperate) x reader

Summary: You sacrificed yourself for them, but just before they can grieve, you come back to life?

Using the Disaster of Floods chapters when Shin Yoosung obliterated KDJ in the novel.

also, Yoo joonghyuk never dated Lee seolhwa bc plot

Kim Dokja knew you were a phoenix, as it said from the story and your character profile said so. What he didn't realize was the fact that you also shared the same abilities as one (your character was mentioned only a few times in TWSA). So when you died, Kim Dokja was terrified.

Kim Dokja's eyes widened at your body standing in front of him. Nononono! He-He was supposed to take the shot! Why did you do that?! You knew he could revive again!-why?

He dashed to catch your fallen body. "No, no, no! [name]! Y-you can't die! Shit! Why did you do that!?" But your body had already fell limp. Kim Dokja cried for his favorite side character, his lover, his idol.

He held you close, yet tears were unable to fall due to the fourth wall. "I can't even cry or mourn you...What kind of lover am I?" He could only close his eyes and curse fate for doing this to him.

-

You opened your eyes to darkness, until a screen popped up.

[You have died.]

[Revitalization count down has finished.]

[The skill, Phoenix:Revive, is taking effect.]

-

Kim Dokja's eyes opened, then widening as your body started to burn. He could only step back, and watch as your body lit on fire. Your clothes started to burn, besides the ones which were fire resistant. 'I couldn't even give you a proper goodbye and their taking me away from you?...' Kim Dokja thought bitterly. He looked down at the ground, clenching his fists in anger.

-

You opened your eyes, your body feeling warm as a flame engulfed you. 'Ah...how nice it is to be a phoenix...' You sighed in relief.

-

The sound of your sigh snapped Kim Dokja's head up to you. "[N-name]? H-how?" Oh, how he wanted to cry so much right then and there. Too bad for the fourth wall.

You stood up as the flames lessoned and cooled down, dusting off some ash. "Huh?...But I thought you knew? I'm a phoenix remember?" You tilted your head in confusion. Wasn't he the one to realize you were a phoenix the moment you met? Surely it wasn't a bluff right?

"A-ah right...how could I be so foolish..." He mumbled, blushing a bit as his heart rate cooled down from the shock. He ran up to you, hugging you tightly and not letting go, ignoring the sweat and high temperature that surrounded you. "Y-you can't do that again!.."

You stood still, a menacing aura coming from you. "What the hell do you mean 'I can't do that again?' Once the cool down is finished, I won't let you die. Hypocrite. You were gonna take the shot for that wretched man, so why can't I?" You seethed in anger.

"Right right sorry..." Kim Dokja scratched his head bashfully. You were right... "I won't stop you okay? Don't be mad..." (He lied he was going to make sure you never had the chance to sacrifice yourself again no matter what).

---------

Just as Shin Yoosung fired the bright beam, your body instinctively moved. "Joonghyuk! Stop staring like a deer in headlights!-" You grabbed Yoo Joonghyuk by the collar, throwing him back behind you as you took the hit.

"Keugh!-" You fell on your knees, coughing up blood nonstop. "A-Ah..no...[name]?..." Yoo Joonghyuk took fast, trembling steps as he caught your falling body.

"Heuk...it hurts...Joonghyuk it hurt so much!..." You cried, your tears mixing with your blood as it dripped down to the side of your face. "P-please don't regress...These new companions, don't abandon them please. I'll be okay.." You begged, grasping onto Yoo Joonghyuk's clothes weakly, before dropping limp, dead.

"Haah, Haah..." Yoo Joonghyuk breathed deeply. Why did he have to see you die again? His only lover in each regression, who cherished him deeply and believed him when he told them he was a regressor, and stayed by his side no matter what. "Why?...Why did you die for me?" Tears dripped down onto your face. The single fear Yoo Joonghyuk had every regression...your death.

-

You opened your eyes to darkness. 'I wonder if he stayed?' You pondered. He, your lover, the man who saved you from your eternal cure of sleep as a phoenix.

[You have died.]

Ah right, you were a phoenix.

[Revitalization count down has finished.]

Thankfully, the countdown ended, so you could return to your lover.

[The skill, Phoenix:Revive, is taking effect.]

-

Yoo Joonghyuk felt a burning pain in his hands as you were set ablaze. "No!" Yoo Joonghyuk screamed, were the gods not even allowing him to bury you properly? Kim Dokja had to hold Yoo Joonghyuk back as he thrashed around, continuously hurting the man, trying to reach his lover.

"[NAME]!" He shouted, then eyes widening as he stepped back. "[name]?..." Your clothes were a bit burned besides the fire resistant ones.

"I wonder if he stayed?..." You mumbled, looking around. You really hoped he didn't regress.

"Y-you're alive...H-how?" Joonghyuk stood still.

"I'm a phoenix, remember? I can come back to life." You smiled, tears dripping down your face. "I'm so happy you didn't regress this time."

His eyes widened in horror and regret. Does that mean..Every time you died and he had regressed, you came back to life moments later? No...no...how-how much time had you spent alone? How could he leave you?

Guilt crept into him. He took a shaky step towards you. "E-every time...you came back?.." His eyes widened, hands shaking as he reached out to hug you.

You nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so." A bitter chuckle came from you lips. He spoke, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you, I-" You cut him off and hugged him as he sobbed into your shoulder.

"Its alright, my dear. Just don't do it again alright? Wait for me. I don't want to be alone."

"Alright." He whispered.

#orv x reader #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint x reader #kim dokja #kim dokja x reader #kdj x reader #kdj #yjh #yoo joonghyuk x reader #yoo joonghyuk #yjh x reader #manhwa x reader

[cyclic-abelian]

Not to long after i finished reading ORV i made this huge as timeline to try and explain all the events that occurred. I'm not sure how the quality will turn out so here's a link to the board just incase https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPIxRxEE=/?share_link_id=227892337635 I think this was the most KDJ thing i did before my friend took a polaroid photo of me on my birthday (Feb 14th which is even worse) and the sun glare perfectly censored my face. I was also wearing a white trenchcoat at the time?? it happened numerous times no matter how many locations we did like i was some haunted Victorian child.

#orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint

[yellowocaballero]

So fucking glad to see someone talk about SSS Class revival hunter 😭 I lived it so much and I feel like no one ever mentions it against more popular titles like ORV or even The Lout of the counts family, so I'm so glad to come here and see your amazing takes :>

Thank you for the ask which lets me talk about SSSCRH (the version I read was titled 'Suicide Hunter', which tbh I like more - no beating around the bush).

It's hard to draw an accurate comparison since I'm going off just the webtoon for SSSCRH, while I'm going off both the webtoon and the webnovel for ORV. And I love ORV, ORV is my media blorbo right now, it hydraulic presses my brain, I am writing ORV fanfic - it's, like, funner to enjoy. But SSSRH is just better. In the vast majority of ways it is is better. It's better than the holy trinity by a wide margin. TW talk of suicide obviously.

I can't believe I'm saying this but you need a basic understanding of Buddhism in order to understand SSSCRH. It's not about Gongja's suicides - he doesn't suicide from depression or lack of self-esteem. SSSCRH is about suffering in the Buddhist sense - dukkha. I don't want to make this an essay, so I might reblog this with more information, but extremely shortly:

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism is the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. You've heard that Buddhists say 'life is suffering'. To put it one way that doesn't require defining a lot of words: the cause of suffering is experiencing the world as we percieve it instead of how it truly is. Suffering isn't just being miserable and in pain, and life isn't suffering because life sucks and global warming exists and people voted for Trump. Life is suffering because we can experience beautiful and joyful moments in this world, but we do not exist in the moment of that happiness or place our ego/'self' between us and that happiness. Living in that moment, accepting the moment as it is unconditionally, is freedom from suffering. The Buddha tries to free people from suffering through teaching Buddhism.

"What does this have to do with the webnovel and manwha about a guy murdering himself thousands of times" it has everything to do with it. Because SSSCRH is about suffering, and it is about using suffering as a tool in order to experience a world unfiltered by ego and break down the artificial boundaries between human beings. Suffering in SSSCRH is not a bad thing. Gongja has the unique capability to (reincarnate.) experience a person's suffering in unity with them, which dissolves the delusion of separation between people and puts us in touch with the reality of oneness.

The Murim arc was fucking insane because Gongja pulls a Big Bodhisattva Move and walks through the suffering of the world in order to achieve full understanding of the human experience. He takes all of the suffering of the world into himself and is liberated. You can tell it's Buddhist because death was not presented as a bad thing - death was an aspect of a happy ending for the Heavenly Demon lady, because she was finishing her life according to her own joy, and because her teachings were passed on she did not truly die.

But the purpose of embracing suffering is to discover the ability to fully embrace life, and that's where Heavenly Demon's teachings were incomplete - as the ghost dude said, Gongja hasn't even experienced his own full life and the infinite capability for his own happiness. You can only feel the depths of sadness when you've felt the depths of happiness. Sadness deserves its place in the world and it can strengthen you, but so does happiness.

Gongja is attention-seeking, envious, and unbelievably petty. When he drills down into his own desires and why he wants the things he wants, you see that he has a very strong sense of justice and right and wrong - he realizes he doesn't want to be famous, he wants to be acknowledged, but on an even deeper level he is desperate for love and to be loved. Everything he does is to experience love, and as such he learns to love others. His love for the Flamey Asshole was purely parasocial and ego-filled, with no concern for who he was as a human. Throughout the manwha, he grows to care for people as they truly are and pierce through any delusions or misleading outward appearances. He has released all attachment to life and death, and as such does not fear death, and as such has taken a step on the road towards becoming a Boddhisatva who frees others from the cycle of samsara, and as a result has learned sick sword techniques and is sooo good at beating people up.

I think the only other thing I want to mention here because otherwise this is an essay: in almost every time loop/regression story, only the final regression matters. In stories with dungeon monsters and NPCs, only the humans matter. The regressor exists in a space where there are no consequences for their actions, so they act terribly and do whatever because none of it matters. In Groundhog Day Bill Murray acts like an asshole because he can. That's not the case here. Everything Gongja does matters. The NPCs are fake, but Gongja never treats them as anything less than real people who deserve life. Once he understands a person's life he never treats them as unimportant. No loop is thrown away and no person or life is disregarded. His choices matter, the way he treats others matters, and Gongja never treats anybody as if they don't matter except for himself.

That was not short. There is a lot more. The female characters are so good and so rich. From a craft perspective it is excellently paced and has a wonderful sense of set-up/payoff and balances tone and maintains a lot of momentum, which is really hard in a time loop story. You have to do a few very specific things to write OP characters well and SSSCRH does it very well. There's more to say from a craft perspective and it's hard to judge accurately from a webtoon but it's good. I was so strangely struck the entire time about how sincere and genuine it was, how it said what it said with no trace of irony of confusion, and I think that's what stuck with me the most.

TL;DR: SSS Class Revival Hunter is good for a lot of very normal reasons, such as excellent pacing and set-up/pay off and characters, but it's also so sincerely and genuinely Buddhist that it blew my tits clean off.

#sss class revival hunter #kim gongja #ssscrh #I s2g I rewrite these like three times to be as short as possible #I just knew I had to define some terms because if I say 'it's about suffering' and leave it at that #people aren't going to fully get it #its not intuitive from a western perspective #It's really hard to get the full meaning of SSSCRH if you have no familiarity with Buddhism #bc suffering (and delusion and nothingness and oneness) mean diff things in buddhism than in english #theres other buddhist stuff like responsibility to the whole and the community but this was long enough already #the few ppl talking about it have good takes but I think ppl miss how #kgj isnt depressed and he doesnt kill himself from self-sacrifice #he's not kdj or cale #he only truly commits suicide (throws his life away) once which was from part percieved worthlessness of his own life #and big part EXTREME FUCKING PETTINESS NEXT LVL PETTINESS INSANE PETTINESS #every other time he kills himself is from his EXTREME goal oriented behavior #as usual there seems to be a dialogue with the rest of its genre #specifically the extreme egocentrism and selfishness of its genre and other OP protags #(which cale has a hilarious relationship w/) #(ur doing amazing honey i know this upsets you) #my asks #and theres also a conversation with buddhism itself anyway #i love orv but this is so much better on so many levels and its being slept on smh #nobody is going to read this its way too long but you know. its not ABOUT you.

[mhaynoot]

so i went into orv with full shades on, didn’t even read the blurb or anything, I just saw the cover art, the bridge scene and some high school au art and was oh they’re so cute! tbh i literally saw images of the bridge scene so i don’t know how i completely missed the fact that there was a webtoon but i did and so i downloaded the epub version first and started reading with 0 expectations except maybe a shounen rivalry

ahh this is a power fantasy, first person, game cliches and all the action tropes of dungeons. i think this is similar to the other thing I was reading (solo levelling) oh huh so he’s a lazy office worker guy who only reads and is about to be laid off? not the worst backstory, i wonder what op power he’s going to get!

i was very very unquestioning of the story, i didn’t really think about much beyond trying to puzzle out surface level power stuff. like i was just fully trusting everything kdj's said in his internal narration. the protagonist is always right, yeah? he’s the omniscient reader’s viewpoint after all. just look at him explaining his acts of good with ulterior motives, look at him being cut throat and saying he's a villian.

"what a self aware protagonist!" i say obliviously.

hyprocrite he calls himself and i cheer.

orv plays into the genre tropes and cliches so well, i was completely blindsided by the gradual build up to all the revelations i just never expect for it to ever answer.

so in the beginning i’m casually rooting for him on as he beats up and outwits his abusive boss, his old bully, as every adversery bows before him in a very power fantasy way. his first death is a brush off, it is inconsiquential, he brushes it off, i say “ah this type of protagonist!”

actually lets talk about his first death for a bit. like kdj literally dies, but his own narration treats it as an inconsequential, small death. ignore it. don’t worry about it, look kdj isn’t worrying about it either! his fourth wall skill is negating the effects that’s why he’s so blase about it and that’s not totally concerning at all, don’t think too hard about it. this is just a power fantasy remember?

until the gaps between his actions and words started appearing even in my very guillable eyes.

I ask, “why do you want to save shin yoosung so much? wasn’t it just hypocrisy?”

kdj narrates:

The omniscience was a curse. Knowing someone's heart meant always deceiving someone.

my worldview starts shattering bit by bit and then the characters around him mourn each death and i startling start mourning too, grieving in a way i wasn’t able to understand for each death and each time he starts this painful cycle of violence and survival and salvation.

it takes a whole month to finish reading the novel. i laughed, cheered, smiled and cried so hard at so many different points reading. orv has become a part of me in a way i never expected.

i love this story.

#orv spoiler #orv #ha rants #i love this novel. it loves me too. it loves you too. #i wanted to analyse some joongdok scenes especially the beginning train scene and the dark castle revelation as well as the 1863rd worldlin #to show how unreliable his narration is and how good the narrative is at keeping his true thoughts and feelings buried #but this post is long enough honestly #i'll keep it in mind for another joongdok analysis #and keep this as a little rant about how much i love this story for ripping my sunglusses off

[hellofeternity]

ORV transcends language | how ORV is kind to readers (1.1k words)

the difficulties in analyzing text are already numerous without a language barrier, the way one word can mean 5 things and when you put it in a sentence suddenly it can mean 50 things and put that sentence in a paragraph? go further and put that paragraph in a page? construct a whole world around it, weave it into the fabric, and suddenly you are painting with words.

ORV is a daunting text, it calls and references so many mythos world wide, greek, roman, indian, chinese, japanese, it plays with meaning and intent and uses gaps in our knowledge like weapons, making us extrapolate our own meaning between the sentences, it is a tome of knowledge when it comes to histories and philosophies it feels at times like I will never understand all these things inside it.

One of the difficulties of reading a translated text is that when we analyze a text the authorial intent weighs very heavily in our minds, sure we can immerse ourselves in the world but once we start picking apart at the threads we hit a wall pretty soon when we start asking ourselves "what did the author mean by this?" however in a translated text there is an obvious gap, a game of telephone, did the translator actually capture the authors intent? or are we just reading the translators perception? sadly I don't know korean, and I cant say I have the drive to learn it, as such I know there will forever be a side of ORV that I will never be privy to - however I am bilingual and had the pleasure of reading two translated versions of ORV, an English translation and an Arabic translation, I didn't finish reading the said Arabic translation but a couple things stood out to me when I briefly did ORV is very kind to readers, following along in other stories can seem confusing at times, the pacing might be too fast and you might miss some details in a characters actions, the wording might be too vague and ah damn 20 pages later you realize you don't actually know why the characters are doing what they are doing. A big writing adage that you will see a lot is "show dont tell" and it holds merit, but ORV doesn't subscribe to it, because ORV shows AND tells. ORV built a world around readers and reading, and it makes sure that there is clarity every step of the way on what is happening, first by starting out as a homage to the isekai genre, and not deviating too much at the start, making the readers feel at home in a worldview they are familiar with, systems, leveling, videos games etc, and when it starts deviating it explains things with clarity that no matter how bad the translation is you understand the general intent, and secondly by being VERY blatant about the names of things and having a built in "story" system that is built on common story tropes and names the themes for you! take for example "unbroken faith" and "Blade of faith" both of these are two translated versions of dokja's sword. I will never know which one is closer to the original authorial intent, but I can tell you something, dokja's sword is symbolism to the faith he is wielding. (CH386 vague spoilers) or the entirety of "the great war of saints and demons" being about the concept of good and evil fighting and how kimcom aren't just above being good and evil, they are both. By using story tropes that we are familiar with to explain the complexity of situations in a simple forms you no longer have to worry about losing you readers understandings through language barriers. Every story in the world in every language knows what good vs evil is, every language has the words to explain them. and therein lies the beauty of ORV. But of course this isn't to say translations don't matter, it does speak to the strength of an original texts clarity when it accounts for the big things by making them simplified, but when we get down to the nitty gritty it starts to lose form take for example

"Tell me, you fool. If I continue to regress, will I ever get to meet you again?"

this person here has a great write up explaining the translators thoughts behind this specific line

but it has spawned a lot of debate in the English speaking fandom, as to the strength of its translation, I remember when I first saw someone claiming that its a mistranslation and "you fool" isn't part of the original, my first thought was "and so?" I do not mean to be dismissive to the original text, but I do not exist in a space where I can appreciate it in the original korean, I do not exist in a worldview where I can understand the historical implications of a lot of the characters, and even when I try to research it in English sadly the resources do not exist yet and its even more laughable to think of finding these things in Arabic. (Goryeos first sword doesn't have an English wikipedia page as a clear example) a lot of people have issues with the most popular English fantranslation of ORV - and I can understand why, being bilingual I have a lot of opinions on how a lot of things SHOULD be translated most of the time, and have done my own translation work but as I sit and think about this popular translation I cant help but just feel love for it, it might be lacking to some, it might be inaccurate at times to others, but its just enough for me to paint the gaps in the text with my perceptions, the words used are tied to my affections the Arabic translation of ORV is clunky, it is messy, it doesn't have as much grace as the English translation of ORV does, the words barely string together cohesively, but it has enough clarity, enough intent, and enough love for its readers, to catch their hearts, their attention and their energy

and so I want this to be the first post on this blog because, the author is dead here, not because I buried them, but because the tower of babel fell down a long time ago, and all we have is rubble and each other. a lot of the analysis on this blog will try to be respectful to the korean original wherever it can, however my words will be coming from an anglosphere perspective, and build on other English reader's perceptions of a text translation that a decent amount of people don't think is adequate, but just like ORV is kind to us, we can be kind back, I will quote the most popular version because its what connects us together, and while the authors intent might be lost, we can share our own meanings with each other, and build our own intent from the rubble.

#orv meta #orv #orv analysis #r1864 #a big wall of text for me to go lol orv is queer and yjh is trans coded #but this is tumblr so everyone knows that already #also I still don't actually know what naming convention is correct I've seen many discussions about this #I just go with what is most popular for ease of understanding and ease of reading #also i find the naming thing very funny in english and latin letters because there isnt nearly this much drama about it in the arabic scrip #I just assume its like any other language that doesnt use latin and we are just trying to break english to sound out letters they dont have #i do like how dokjas name sounds like its splitting in the middle in the correct pronunciation 'dok-ja' adds to his duality #and i am sad that gets lost in the latin script sounding

[canigetawaho]

2 boys kissing did in fact bring me to ALNST. I saw the trending gif and I just HAD to find out wtf this was. Tumblr tags only made me more confused. Reading Ivan-Sua meta with no other context. Manipulative king Luka posts. Finally checking out the series by link. Nothing is what I expected. This is AMAZING. ITS ALSO INSANE.

I have so many WIPS now thanks to this series and I might actually post some within a month. I'm so close to finishing so much work. Alien Stage has done something to me. Not even orv hit me this fast.

First of all, I'm glad I'm not the only one into ORV, I think it's quite adorable the fact that this fandoms seem to overlap, like it's so natural to go from one to the other ^_^ and to be honest, I feel you in the sense that ORV felt like something that I savored slowly while alnst just hit me like a train and I love it (hope it makes sense lol)

Second of all, I also got into this fandom because of Ivantill :) . Round 3 had just dropped at that time and I thought it was some BL anime about them and that it might have a sad ending but I finally decided to check it out because I loved the art style (and also the scene with the meteors was just gorgeous) and I was pleasantly surprised to see how wrong I was

What I was trying to say in my post was that just because more people joined because of them then those that came because of Mizisua doesn't mean that "people are obsessed with yaoi and yuri is getting ignored" and that "it's unfair to the creator" and that "it's weird or toxic"(those are just the things I have seen said) and I didn't think it was true. I felt hatred and fear from them and that made me sad especially because I knew there is more to the story and how the fandom interacts with it than that

I am not good at putting my thoughts into words but I hope you understand what I am trying to say

I am happy you sent me this even if it might not be obvious :) thank you

I am also so happy that you are having fun with experiencing this series and I hope that everything you're working on is going to turn out just the way you want them to and I'm sure it's gonna be amazing

I wish you a good day/night :) and thank you again

#alien stage #alnst #ivantill #mizisua #mention of orv

[showinalittlelife]

did i just finish orv or did orv just finish me

#orv #uhm #yeah

[its-your-mind]

so yes, orv did permanently and fundamentally shift my personal perspective of the world, specifically my role in it as a storyteller and an observer and a friend and a mentor and a child and an adult and a victim and someone in power and and and. it also made me feel the broadest spectrum of human emotion. I could probably spend years thinking about it and never fully understand everything it made me feel and all the personal and philosophical thoughts it made me think.

unfortunately if I think about it too hard for too long I find myself teetering on the cliff’s edge of a depressive episode and have to shut my media-analysis brain down so I don’t fall back into that particular black hole. after I finished it my brain fully shut down and did not come fully back online for 3-4 months I shit you not I finished it in October of last year and my emotional state has only just recovered.

it was one of the most devastating endings to a book I’ve ever read. It was perfect and beautiful. It was whatever the opposite of catharsis is. I’ve never been more filled with hope and awe. I’ve never been so desperately sad and hopeless. no I am not able to comprehend how that works either. see what I said above re: the cliff’s edge.

see the thing is it would have been FINE if shing-song had fucking WARNED ME that they were gonna make me FEEL EVERYTHING EVER about the human experience from EVERY ANGLE and then RIP OFF A SHEET AND REVEAL THAT THE STORY WAS A FUCKING MIRROR THIS WHOLE TIME. AND PROCEEDED TO BEAM ALL MY ATTENTION AND LOVE AND EMOTION I POURED INTO THIS STORY OVER A PERIOD OF LITERAL WEEKS OF SUSTAINED FOCUS STRAIGHT BACK AT ME IN THE SPAN OF 0.2 SECONDS LIKE A FUCKING ARCHIMEDES LASER.

ahem. anyways. that would be the uh. cliff’s edge. we will be walking away from it now.

anyway it’s the book with the two trench coat Korean dudes who beat Inventers-Of-Yaoi Spirk in the Yaoi Tournament Bracket it has badass ladies AND cringefail ones AND transgender allegories AND giant monsters and gods and demons and kids and magic and space and dimensions and time shenanigans it’s fucking insane and incredible and if you’re the kinda person who exists on fandom tumblr in the year of our lord 2024 this book is meant to come for you specifically and you will thank it afterwards go ye forth

#PSA: you need to read Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint it is the Most Story I have ever consumed #It is just very #It will change you as a person #it is being webtooned atm and when you catch up to the webtoon there are lots of places to get the full novel #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #omniscent reader #omniscient reader novel #orv novel #just got to 73rd demon king in my reread and I literally cannot force myself to keep going #I think the webtoon is almost there too??? I think the outer god shadow is about to pop up #anyway I need this book injected into my veins tyvm