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unexpectedgeese · 1 year

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WARNING: LONG-ASS ORV POST. LIKE, 1.5K WORDS LONG.

*throws myself through your window* OMNISCIENT READER’S VIEWPOINT PORTRAYS THE ‘THREE WAYS TO SURVIVE IN A RUINED WORLD’-- AUTHOR, READER, AND PROTAGONIST– AS BOTH A SOURCE OF HOPE AMIDST THE STAR STREAM’S CRUSHING DESPAIR AND PART OF THAT VERY SAME SYSTEM. IN THIS ESSAY I WILL–

*i drop the bit and explain my thinking* Okay SO. My point stands regardless of what exactly you think the Star stream symbolizes, and regardless of which of the ‘three ways’ you’re looking at, since all possible interpretations of ORV are interconnected as shit. So I’m going to be saying ‘fuck that’ to writing separate paragraphs for each one and instead sections this post off into three sections: The Good, The Bad, and The Ultimate Message Sing-Shong is trying to give us about Breaking Cycles, Overcoming Trauma, and Making Capitalism your Bitch.

Also: If we’re looking at the ‘Author, Reader, Protagonist’ roles, we need to know what they’re the Author, reader, and protagonist of. There’s a shit ton of books in ORV (including ORV itself), and we need to know which one we’re talking about to understand the novel as best we can.

SSSSS-Class regressor or whatever tf it was called: Written by Han Sooyoung in an attempt to give her readers what they want.

Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World: Written by Han Sooyoung, therefore perpetuating the cycle, in order to save KDJ/ the Oldest Dream. Read by The Oldest Dream to cope with real life. Lived by YJH, who was created by it.

THE STAR STREAM ITSELF: ‘written’ by the incarnations (HSY compares them to authors at some point), who need the support of their audience to survive. Edited by the Dokkaibei, who have a compulsion to satisfy the reader’s needs. Read by the constellations, who need stories to live. Lived by the incarnations.

ORV: not my circus, not my monkeys. I’ve already got way too much to cover in this post, so I’m not talking about this.

PART ONE: They’re literally called the Three Ways to Survive, man, I don’t know what else to tell you

The Star Stream (and modern society in general) is a scary place. When death lurks around every corner, what the fuck are you supposed to do? Be an Author, Reader, or Protagonist, of course!

So, the author. We’ve got a lot of these: Kdj’s mom, Han Sooyoung writing SSSSS-class regressor, Han Sooyoung in the star stream itself, Han Sooyoung writing WoS, Han Sooyoung writing the 1863rd round, Han Sooyoung writing ORV– point is, we’ve got choices. But here’s a Question: what do all of these examples have in common?

Well, before their respective authors (AKA han Sooyoung) got ahold of them, the stories already existed. Authorship in ORV is about taking an existing series of events and writing a story around them– whether it’s written for the author’s sake or for someone else’s.

The Author copes with the Ruined World by taking reality and rewriting it in their own image. Lee Sookyung wrote Underground Killer to stop Kim Dokja from being tried for the murder. Han Sooyoung (tried to) rewrite the 1863rd round to stop WoS from ever becoming reality. She wrote WoS to stop Kim Dokja from dying.

An Author’s stories can change public perception of an event or person, and enough of a sway can actually change the source material itself. In this way, an author can change the past. In Gigantomachia, for example, the interference of the Gods makes Hercules a part of the myth, and ORV itself is meant to change Kdj’s opinion and thus change how the world works.

As seen above, the reader is the proverbial ‘God’ of the Ways of Survival. A story comes alive through the way its readers interpret it. There are a lot of readers in ORV; we have KDJ (both as a reader of WoS and in the star stream), the apostles, the Oldest Dream, and the Constellations. A story’s readers dictate what does and doesn’t fly, as shown with the mechanics of probability; when enough constellations approve of something, reality can change.

The Reader can cope with the Ruined World by distancing themself from it; like with the fourth wall, or the constellations. If it isn’t real, it can’t hurt you, after all! The Reader, with their access to the story, can also understand its characters better than most. And when the Protagonist reaches the end of the story, so too does the reader.

Although the Author and the Reader might have the most say in real life, in ORV the Protagonist is the one with the power to really shake up fate. All incarnations are protagonists to some degree, but Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja are the main ones.

The Protagonist copes with the ruined world by forging their own path; the power of a person’s story can see them through some tough times. Yjh’s power as a transcendent is rooted in his power as the protagonist, for example.

Basically YJh has PTSD, KDJ dissociates for a living, and HSY’s so good at compartmentalizing and rewriting herself that she’s literally 10,000 different people. Tie that in to Regressor/reincarnator/returnee and past/present/future yourselves, I don’t have time for that shit. MOVING ON

PART TWO: This isn’t the Divergent– maybe people should be more than one thing

So, we’ve got our Author, Reader, Protagonist set-up, and it seems pretty nice! All three have carved out their own little niche in the story, and surely that can’t be bad for them haha. Right?

Wrong, actually. Capitalism is a bitch and a half, and coping mechanisms become maladaptive the second it’s them controlling you. The ‘Three Ways to Survive’ might let you survive, but it doesn’t let you live. The survival methods of our main cast can easily hurt as much as they help, and systems of power can exploit them even easier. The star stream sucks, the only thing we have to lose is our chains, and that damned meteor is a symbol again. We’ll get to it.

So! Being an author is cool, writing’s great. Metaphysically and thematically being an author is half being exploited and half exploiting others. In ORV, authors are at the total mercy of their reader’s tastes in media. Asuka Ren’s Peace Land was cancelled because nobody gave a shit about it. The Star Stream’s scenarios are full of violence and tragedy because that’s what the constellations want to see. Lee Sookyung’s entire life was turned into a sensationalist smorgasbord because true crime freaks are everywhere.

When authorship stops being a passion project and starts being your only way to survive, you lose all agency over what you write and who you hurt to do it. And an Author’s powers of turning the world around them into a story can have some shit effects on the world around them. In rewriting the narrative, Authors can very easily trample on their character’s free will in an attempt to reach their happy ending. We see this happen a shit ton with the incarnations (yes, they are authors: HSY explicitly says so), and with HSY in her altered timeline. While she was gunning for a happy ending, she did so by taking free will away from everyone else. Lee Sookyung does the same thing to her son.

And readers have the same shit hand in this. The same ‘fourth wall’ that protects them from harm also isolates them from the connections to others that they seek– That’s, like, the entire point behind KDJ’s character arc. Readers also have very little power to change the story; they’re passive observers before all else. While the constellations can influence goings-on through their probability, they can’t actually do anything. They’re often lonely as shit, as well; the fourth wall is a one way street, so while they can understand the characters, nobody understands them. We’ve already covered the adverse effects of audience approval on authors, but it’s just as bad for characters– as seen with the apostles, there’s a major dehumanizing effect of the fourth wall.

And as the protagonist, Yoo Joonghyuk does some bullshit during his regressions. His uncompromising nature leads to a shit ton of atrocities committed in the name of the narrative. And he’s also having a bad time: sometimes the timeloop means you’re strapped in the narrative and that is. Bad. And I don’t think anyone could read ORV and not notice the treatment of the incarnations, so I’m leaving it unsaid.

PART THREE: holy shit this post is so long lemme wrap it up

So, to summarize. The ‘three ways’ (author, reader, protagonist) symbolize the different ways an individual can survive in a cycle that doesn’t give a shit about them (be it capitalism, the entertainment industry, or trauma). But these three ways, as much as they can help a person, are also really harmful; the cycle of the Star Stream is perpetuated by all of its participants, at all levels– from the Dokkaibei king to the incarnations of the very first scenario. Author, Reader, and Protagonist are both helpful coping mechanisms and harmful roles in the society of the star stream.

Alright actual conclusion time I am SO tired and I have written 1,500 words about this shit. Basically nobody in ORV is evil they’re all just trying to survive but the system they live in means that you can’t do that without a sacrifice. This is some Omelas level shit alright. The only thing within the Star System that you can change alone is who’s in the boss’s chair. The social classes of ORV (the three ways) won’t get jack shit done if they stick within the lines. Wreck shit. Staying in Omelas doesn’t change Omelas. Walking out doesn’t either.

There are Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World, sure– but that doesn’t mean the world has to stay ruined.

#orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #dude WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO #why did i write this. it's so long and I barely said anythign.#like I had SO MUCH MORE TO SAY!!#I didn't even get to talk about the meteor thing #or Paradise and the thing about cycles

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headphonemouse · 9 months

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Major orv spoilers discussing the Oldest Dream that quickly veers off-course into an investigation on Kim Dokja's age

I was thinking about the confrontation with the Oldest Dream. Kim Dokja doesn't look anything like his mother, so does he look like his father? An image of his father appeared once in the text but I forgot if his details were described. An uncertain amount of time over 13 years ago, his father might have been in his late 20s or early 30s. Having both come at that young boy with a blade, the similarities are really painful to think about

Imagining a world where he is so much more (powerful, adored, charismatic, courageous) than he is, maybe he felt like that other version of him was better off living instead. But he still didn't believe any version of himself had the right to exist happy and whole. Even so, he wanted someone to stop him from destroying and cutting off parts of himself. His frail, shameful past did not wish to be shorn off so callously

As a side note, I think the song Lion's Teeth fits him

Side note 2: I like to think he was 10 or 11 when his mom went to jail, 15 when he discovered WOS (canon), and [EDIT SEVERAL HOURS INTO WRITING THIS: EVERYTHING PAST THIS POINT HAS BEEN DISPROVEN (???) IN A REREAD OF CERTAIN SCENES (details below)*] 17 or 18 when he was seen at the train station (to account for the breadth of his knowledge of WOS. Sure the fixation could have settled in immediately but we don't know how far those first few chapters covered so im giving him a few years. Also imagining the scene where the outer god kings are holding him up in a human chariot with a big red arrow pointing at him like "South Korean Citizen of legal voting age" is funny.)

Okay because I just went into a research rabbit hole I'm breaking up the paragraph:

1. 18 is the age to vote in Presidential and National Assembly elections. 19 is the age to vote in legal elections (link, paragraph 1).

2. As of June 2023, South Korea has written their Korean Age Based on the New Year out of law (link, paragraph 2) so it's possible that when KDJ said "I'm 28 years old" in 2018, he was using his Korean Age. His International Age (age calculation system used by the entire rest of the world) would have been one year younger (thankfully he was born near the beginning of the year or else the age difference would have been close to 2 years). More evidence supporting his use of Korean Age instead of International Age: he said he was 15 in 8th grade. 15 is the age in Korean Years that kids attend 8th grade while their International Ages are 13-14 (link, section: School Grades).

3. If 8 in Korean Years is the age that kids enter the 1st grade, and his Korean Age is about 13 months over his International Age (did I do my math right???), he would have been on the older end of his grade level, at 7 years old in International Years among 6-7-year-olds. None of this has much to do with my original post, but it is interesting to note when thinking of his relationship with his peers and how small he seemed.

One more thing: South Koreans also age out of foster care at 18 so he would have REALLY needed the 999gang at this point. BUT: 1. I don't think bouncing around relatives counts as being in the foster care system and 2. Didn't he move out on his own early? I think I read that somewhere. I remember thinking that was way too young.

AHA

Chapter 408:

"I recalled the day I left the relatives' place for lodging in a hostel. I was seventeen back then."

THAT IS WAY TOO YOUNG. HE WOULD'VE BEEN 16 IN INTERNATIONAL YEARS. HE WAS PRESSURED BY HIS RELATIVES TO LEAVE AND SINCE THIS ISN'T PART OF THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM HE DIDN'T EVEN GET ANY SEVERANCE PAY. ON TOP OF THEM HAVING STOLEN LEE SOOKYUNG'S MONEY I WISH THEY HAD SURVIVED THE APOCALYPSE JUST SO HAN SOOYOUNG COULD RIP THEM APART

Here's an additional passage from chapter 534 supporting my idea of when he became the Oldest Dream:

"Kim Dokja, 16 years old. 17, 18.

He'd consume this story and grow older, and eventually, become the 'Oldest Dream'."

Meaning he became the Oldest Dream AFTER turning 18 in Korean Years, 11th or 12th grade, 16-18 in International Years. He was still wearing a high school uniform so he'd have been 19 in Korean Years AT MOST.

[*Details from after rereading more scenes:

Chapter 285:

"During middle school, I even drew charts in the corner of my textbook."

Chapter 513:

"A thin, small-statured child who might have passed off as an elementary schooler were it not for his school uniform, was sitting on that bench. As if he was trying to memorise English words, he was busy scribbling something like a chart on his notebook."

SO. His uniform was NOT described as a high school uniform. He was small enough to be mistaken for an ELEMENTARY SCHOOLER, and he was doodling charts. This all points to him being 15 at the time they meet him on the platform.

Caveats: we still don't know how much was covered in the at most 11 months he's been reading WoS. It might be enough to get a basic understanding of power balances but it has nothing on adult KDJ's 13 years of reading. Also, the line from chapter 534 does not support the idea that he was still 15 when he became the Oldest Dream.

Maybe an 'oldest dream' is just a dream that's been held onto for a long time, instead of being a snapshot of a particular version of Kim Dokja at a particular age. Maybe all of him ever since the moment this dream germinated on that train platform has been the Oldest Dream.

This is ridiculous. Kid discovers a book he really likes and the first time he thinks "man I wish I could help these characters out alongside them" a future version of himself (who may or may not look just like his dad) pops out of a train and tries to kill him and then himself. And then his favorite characters also come out and lift him up, though it's uncertain if he's even read up to the 999th regression yet. I mean 1/13 of 1863 is 143 so if WoS were evenly paced no he would not have read about them yet. But WoS was NOT evenly paced so we can't tell.

#reading tag #orv spoilers #i made 3 major edits to this post before giving up on deleting the previous version and here we are #tumblr actually crashed on me in the middle of my 4th edit that was GONNA be my final edit

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