Pokemon Is Such A Large Fanbase We All Like The Same Core Thing But The Difference Between The Different

one of the most powerful messages orv has tbh is "your self-loathing behavior badly hurts other people who want to care for you." a lot of depictions of depression, suicidality, issues with self-esteem, etc. focus near-exclusively on the person who suffers from them, which is understandable, but I love that orv is commited to showing how SELFISH kdj's behavior can be. he tends to trample over other people's desperate wishes to connect to him and love him because he doesn't think he's worthy of it, and it ends up being some of the worst pain those people have ever experienced when he won't let them reach him! he's of course a sympathetic character but he still has this horrible habit of disregarding other people's emotions in ways that are unintentionally awfully cruel!

like idk i don't think anything's ever put a silver bullet through a martyr complex quite like the message of "you hurt people SO MUCH WORSE by harming & isolating yourself than any pain you could potentially cause them by sharing your burdens with them." it's realistic and kind while still being the brick upside the head some people need to snap em out of it lmao

/ORV SPOILERS/

one thing i cant pinpoint about Kim Dokja is his view on himself. Its either he full on hates himself.

or

he has the causal disinterest in himself. Where, yeah he doesn't /hate/ himself. (dislike maybe?) but if he could be someone else that would be better. if he was a better person. wouldn't he be more lovable that way? like that odd feeling where you look at others and think...if only i was that funny/that good looking/ that popular... like its not full on hate but if you think about yourself for too long your self disgust starts to show. and you get sad and 'im so unlovable' (thinking of where all of kimcom talk around the fire about the house.. and kdj starts to question if someone like him deserves it... -hmmm ill have to go back and reread that to make sure thats true.) "wouldn't it be better if I was someone else?/I want to be someone else." > 49% <

on my reread i noticed the decline of his thoughts towards himself really starts to show during in the Demon Realm arc. Where his "I am Yoo Joonghyuk." habit is fully revealed. Which is super fucking sad actually. To have so little confidence in yourselves to the point where you need to act like someone else to speak up for yourself

banging my head against a wall... Kim Dokja i love you. im sorry for threatening to put you in a blender. please live a good life..

i really do love how trans the themes of orv are. orv really said you will have to face a loss of autonomy and control that is completely horrifying and people will try and push stories and roles that don't fit onto you in order to better catergorize you and you will grow up with this gigantic wall between the rest of you and humanity. and the only way to escape any of it is to partake in the art of creation and scribble over what was already written to begin writing your own story (your own self). which is only for you. and this is what being trans is like as well!

it’s doksoo week and i’m thinking of how the endless loop starts and ends with kdj on a hospital bed and hsy looking over him

omg hi....

Sometimes I wish Earth wasn't hit with the cataclysm just so we could have OG Cale go live in the modern Korea and we could see him be amazed as he tried out everything he hadn't seen before in his world. No inheriting Kim Roksoo's memories business. Just let him explore this new world on his own. He could spend all the money OG Roksoo saved up on branded items. I want to see him wear Louboutins with heels. I wonder if he'd leave the desk job KRS originally had and go become an ice skater. He learns beat-boxing somewhere along the way. I just get so happy imagining him trying out different sports because they didn't have those in his old world. Tennis, basketball, oh he's absolutely fire at stuff like dart throw and archery. His bottle throwing at gangsters gave him enough aiming practice. He loves going to a bar on Friday nights after work- Wait.

If he doesn't inherit Kim Roksoo's memories, he'd definitely have issues adjusting to the new world because of how different it is from his own. The education, the technological advancements. He's gonna have his work cut out for him once he gets there. OG Cale without Kim Roksoo's memories would be Hoshi levels of technologically challenged. He'd eventually get the hang of it. But the struggle is real.

Gosh, it's just so fun to imagine this magical fantasy world aristocrat getting isekai'd into modern day Korea and getting befuddled with everything here. He's gonna have a field day exploring it all. And when he eventually finds and adopts Jour's reincarnation? How tf is he supposed to help her with her homework if he didn't receive the education of this world?! His cute little niece is gonna judge him so hard!

For all the convenience that comes with the new world, it sure has its fair share of drawbacks. And working overtime is one of them. So is working night shifts. Whether it's an apocalyptic world or not, OG Cale's determination to become to the CEO of the company Kim Roksoo worked at solely to get rid of the night shifts would not change one bit. That is one tenacious man after all.

Gosh! Just, OG Cale in modern day Korea!

Trying to convince my dnd friends to watch dungeon meshi...

hiiiiiiiiiiii……. 🚦(WIP)

You know, genuinely, the transmigration setting of svsss fascinates me. Shen Yuan adapts remarkably quickly (makes you want to explore exactly how attached he felt to his home in the first place? An interesting thought for another time.) but I have to wonder, how does his past shape his psyche?

I'm sure most people are familiar with nature vs nurture, and that the situation you were raised in shapes you fundamentally as a person (It doesn't define you though.) . Moreso, the culture you were raised in, and participated in, contributed to and perpetuated.

I think it can be easily argued that the world of 'PIDW' moves differently to Shen Yuan's modern day China. I think there is some bleed-through or carry-over, but the cultures are different. (Perhaps with Modern Day as the 'mother culture' to PIDW, seeing as Shang Qinghua may or mayn't be the creator of said world.)

If you take the same culture at different points in time even, the cultural mindset and cultural awareness ( I like to think of it like a portfolio lol), there will be a marked difference. You just have to wonder the difference of perspectives, not even from a character point of view, but culturally.

And! You have to marvel at the fact that Shen Yuan adapted as well as he did! He was speedrunning integrating into a new culture! I mean sure, he had foreknowledge of the world, but knowledge of, say a different country is not the same as learning to truly live there.

I can have knowledge of a foreign country, know it's stories and songs, it's celebrities, traditions and way of governance: the climate, the flowers and the pathways of its waters.

Yet, that would not make integrating into the culture any less eye-opening and educational. It would not make me any less of a student to that culture I'm learning.

This isn't even bringing up that there are multiple cultures in Shen Yuan's PIDW.

I won't argue that Shen Yuan could navigate all these cultures well or easily, but that he did at all is fascinating. Shang Qinghua does have a few legs up, being the author and getting a PIDW childhood.

Shen Yuan's different cultural perspective, I would like to posit, is another reason the Cang Qiong Peak Lords got suspicious. The difference in personality could only be highlighted by Shen Yuan's different cultural foundation. He's operating from an absolutely different place than Shen Jiu!

Anyway, this contrast and concept, this facet of svsss delights me and I enjoy rotating it in my mind.

It seems that this just turned into a SY appreciation post. But what can I say? The funky dude deserves it.

Orv thesis statement basically