Happy Birthday, To Our Star!

You were supposed to save him, you were made to save him

[ID: Black and white Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint fanart of Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk. Sooyoung is shouting at Joonghyuk, who is sinking against her with one hand at her shoulder as she holds him by the collar. Sooyoung looks pained and angry, and she's crying. Joonghyuk's face is lowered and obscured by his collar. End ID] (Thank you to @/princess-of-purple-prose for writing it!)

dreamer

secretive plotter is so down bad for kim dokja from the beginning its so funny. other constellations messages are like [prisoner of the golden headband thinks your battle looked cool] or [demon-like judge of fire thinks you were brave!] and then sp's are like [secretive plotter thinks your plots are like sooo cool] [secretive plotter is sharing a wink with you over your tactics] [secretive plotter's eyes are shining watching you] [secretive plotter thinks you should dump that loser yoo joonghyuk] [secretive plotter wants to slob on that knob like corn on the cob] brother get UP!!!!!

shoot the puppy, shin yoosung. you need to pass the first scenario

sickos will say this was yuri

more picrews hehe

made my little guys on this picrew

Happy birthday, our dearest Reader.

I am not an emotionless monster It's so hard for me to push a knife in your heart but I know, I am the only one who can do it

spoiler rambles under the readmore

This line from the play stuck with me a lot, and I know its not particularly in the novel but I still enjoyed it because it makes you think about her being the one who wrote in dokja's death, in a way also dealing the final blow along with yjh in this moment, death by story, includes her as the killer too

A friend requested that I post some ORV thoughts on Tone and Themes from discord. I have edited the messages for better organization and clarity below:

There are a lot of quotes that you could argue are the culmination or distillation of ORV. You could also argue that ORV itself is not reducible to a single quote because of the sheer enormity of it, and how that size is a component of the story itself. But if I were to convey the specific melancholy of ORV-- my most fundamental read on the Feeling of ORV-- I would choose one quote to do so.

I’d fall back on, “In a world turned upside down, where monsters were rampant, we still had to clear the snow.”

Throughout the immense battles of good vs evil or gods and demons, ORV remains a story about people doing the things they have to in order to continue living.

And there is a distinct melancholy to that: the grief stricken “is it just this forever,” everyone being a regressor, and the mundane tragedies of struggling on in a world that will build a narrative around you regardless of your input or desires. However, all of these things are part and parcel to ‘surviving’ in a ruined world

It's about taking those small steps forward, regardless of cataclysmic tragedy and world-rending stakes. You still have to clear the snow. You still have to take care of the people around you. You still have to cook dinner. You still have to live.

It's the melancholy of a 'nevertheless', and that's a hopeful kind of melancholy. Reaching out and trying again and again. Leaving a mark on the wall because someone might read it. Regressing so that one day you won’t have to. Iterating and changing and trying again and again. It’s about making attempts.

It's about finding ways to survive, even if you've forgotten a few.

I've heard someone say kim dokja's ■■ parallels his name first introduced in the novel. I cant remember who anymore, or what exactly they wrote, but I do have some ideas of my own:

"Kim Dokja": an only child "Kim Dokja": a reader. His ■■ consists of two: Eternity and Epilogue.

Eternity, where he gets to be a lonely child in a subway. He is forever on this subway, forever strong; independent; self sufficient. He is the 'only child'.

And on this subway, he gets to spectate and see what every reader longs to see at the end of a beloved story: the characters live happily after years of tragedy, settling down as they maintain their found family dynamics for the rest of their lives. He is the 'reader'.

Epilogue, where this time, instead of watching the characters leave him to his own cold world, he goes on towards this new ending with them. He is no longer the 'reader', but instead a 'character' in the story with all the people he has ever loved. He has a new family now, one with his two lovely mothers, a dependable older brother to lean on (swk), not to mention the entirety of kim com & the other occasional constellations there to fill up their big house with chatter and laughter and warmth. He is definitely no longer an 'only child'.

To become 49% percent is to become someone who is neither a reader, nor an only child. To become 49% is to no longer be "Kim Dokja".