About Kim Dokja and Romance
!DISCLAIMER!
I do not intend to start a(nother) shipping war, nor invalidate any kind of opinion on ships and theories on who whom my love romantically etc. Have fun with your own ships, I do not and should not care, as long as they are not unethical. I am simply sharing my own thoughts based on the way I understand the canon of the novel. And well, spoilers for the whole novel.
Throughout the whole of "Omniscient Reader´s Viewpoint", our beloved main character Kim Dokja diligently stays single. But this does not mean in any way that the novel is vacant of any love, quite the contrary. I understand ORV as a story which revolves around many different kinds of topics and ideas, and love is certainly one of them. And with love I do not mean romantic love in itself, but love as an umbrella term for any kind of deeper affection between two or more people; and ORV is clearly full of it. No matter how you may read the different relationships from your own viewpoint as a reader, no one can can argue that love does not exist between the characters. Talking further about the nature of all the relationships ORV covers is another thing in itself, as to why I will not further get into it if it will not be of importance for the next few points I am going to make. Romance is still indeed one of the kinds of love which is canonically shown in ORV, in particular between Jung Heewon and Lee Heesung. Though, as further stated, Dokja is in no kind of explicit romantic affair with anyone, fans (like me) still have their fun with their own ships and theories. Now, I also want to throw in my own two cents.
I believe I should start this little "analysis" of mine with a blunt statement: Kim Dokja is in no kind of way interested in women romantically, not even remotely. What I am trying to convey is not that he is gay, but simply to acknowledge the non existence of any kind of romantically driven interest from his side. The novel makes this absolutely clear throughout it´s whole entirety. Still, there is definitely a reason why ships like Dokja x Sangah, Dokja x Sooyung, Dokja x Uriel and even Dokja x Heewon are somewhat popular. All those ships can be traced back to multiple scenes and statements being made, but not one, not a single one of them states or even remotely shows any kind of interest coming from Dokja himself. Quite the opposite, they seem to even undermine his romantic disinterest in women overall. It rather feels as if the readers are unable to fully understand what the scenes try to convey and how his relationship to these particular women is being shown within the novel.
The first relationship that I would like to start with, and one which is very dear to me, is the friendship between Yoo Sangah and Dokja. Next to Han Sooyung, and especially in between the only!Webtoon readers, their relationship is being seen as (somewhat) romantic most often. And that is even somewhat understandable. There is no reason to deny the underlying romantic atmosphere that one my read in between them, primarily at the beginning of the story. Indeed, the first few scenes between them even seem to somewhat push a romantic narrative on them. From the viewpoint of a reader who is maybe even expecting a romance subplot, the first thoughts one may have upon reading the first scene between them in the subway and later while they are drinking together right before Dokja goes into the Underworld for the first time, would be: "Oh, so that is the female lead, isn´t she?" Looking back after completing the novel, that first thought seems comical to me.
The question one has to ask themselves is, "Why do these scenes seem that way to the reader?". That question is easily answered. One of Dokja´s first thoughts which he has after starting to converse with Sangah is "I could kind of understand why men found her attractive [but] it didn't matter to me." (Ch. 2). Now there is that. But what many do seem to overlook is the way how he phrases that thought. He does not say that she is attractive to him, but that she is to others. Yes, he does acknowledge that she is very good-looking (and good lord she indeed is). But since when is finding someone good-looking or even attractive the same as being actively attracted to or even being romantically interested in them. Dokja calls multiple characters good-looking throughout a novel, like Yoo Joonghyuk, Nirvana, Uriel and Sun Wukong to only name a few, and to claim that he would therefor have an interest in them would be simply ridiculous.
Another thought which Dokja has in the same scene, which may lead to that interpretation, would be his reaction after seeing the language learning up on her phone. In-between all the awkwardness he feels during their exchange, the way he regards her starts to obviously lean into a way of him putting a clear distinctive wall between them. He believes her to not only be interlay different from him, but even superior, as if "she truly [lived] a genre different from [him]" (Ch. 2). Dokja seems to view her as someone better, which thickens not only the already awkward atmosphere between them, but also makes him embarrassed about his own interest. What may seem like a kind of admiration for Sangah at the first glance, is quite evident a comparison he makes between the both of them to put himself down. The reason for that is his non-exitent selfesteem and deep self hatred (which is actually one of my favourite themes in ORV, if not even my favourite), and has nothing to do with any kind of romantic feelings. Though, from the moment he first sees how Sangah uses her newly gained abilities and onward, he does not only start to now truly admire her, but even appreciate her as a close friend who he can lean on.
Yes, while the scene at the campfire does exist and eventhough they do nearly kiss each other, it was not iniated by either of them. It was the influence of Dionysus and the 'magic' within the wine. Through it´s influence, they acted without any direct control of their will, and that is made clear. Not only are both obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable after the whole situation, but it is directly stated that Dokja thought that "something was strange" (Ch. 112), while Sangah was startled by the whole situation after regaining her previously lost will (Ch. 112). As the reader, we see that the scene has no impact on their further relationship in terms of a development of romantic tension. They do feel a bit uncomfortable around each other, but only for a short while. I suppose it did have an impact in regard to them growing closer in general. Through Dokja's connection to Olympus and Sangah being their incarnation, she is the first person he keeps on involving in plans and generell matters concerning Olympus. While their other companions keep on teasing them for some time, the joking soon dies down on their part (though Joonghyuk was firstly convinced of a romantic relationship between both of them which then lead to him throwing quite the fit, ha!).
As prior stated, Dokja and Sangah do grow closer, but in a relation based on mutual respect, trust and most important, a feeling of friendship and companionship. One of their duo scenes later in the novel has till now never left my mind and is surely one of my favourites. While I do not know the exact placement of the scene, nor the exact chapter (and I do not wish to search through 551 chapters again), Yoo Sangah shares her thoughts about a possible reality, where the apocalypse never happened, with Dokja. She shares her wishful scenario that in that timeline, both of them would keep on working at Minosoft. Even if he would quit (or be fired as his contract was about to expire), both of them would still befriend each other and maybe meet up to talk about books. I vaguely remember her also talking about them living near each other, though I can not swear on this being actually true or just something I falsely connect to the scene. Overall, it was a very sweet talk, which for me stressed just how much Sangah values their friendship. There is absolutely nothing romantic about the whole conversation. If there is one thing that makes me particularly angry, it is people trying to push their absolutely beautiful friendship forcefully into a romantic interpretation. Their relationship is truly dear to me.
The only other scenes which may have been interpreted as romantic, are those, when either one of his mothers or any other character comment on their relationship, or share their opinion on Sangah as Dokja´s romantic partner. He usually reacts with feeling uncomfortable and is after a time simply tired of the continuous comments. While he does get embarrassed after Persephone changes her appearance to that of Sangah (Ch. 114), the reason for that rather is because of the outfit that she is wearing. He specifically even mentions it and says that "the Chinese dress and garter belt... [...] was really great" (Ch. 116), before seeing the exhausted Yoo Sangah in front of him and being ashamed of his thoughts. The focus in his thoughts clearly lays within the image of the outfit. It would be senseless do deny that he felt somewhat attracted to that image of Yoo Sangah, but then again not to her specifically. This becomes clearer in the scene, where KimCom is measuring the affection points he has for them (Ch. 169). The device shows the number 481 for Yoo Sangah, while she was wearing the Chinese dress and garter belt. But that exact number is shown when Lee Jihye uses the device again, while she was also wearing the exact same outfit. Now, before, her score were mere 6 points. It appears that, to Kim Dokja, the image of a person wearing that outfit is instantly attractive, no matter which person is wearing it. It is rather his personal fantasy/"kink", which attracted him to Persephone´s look, not the fact that she looked like Yoo Sangah. As priory stated, the are exactly 0 moments in the entirety of ORV, which actually insinuates the existence of romantic feelings Dokja might harbor for Yoo Sangah.
Another really really popular ship is the one between Han Sooyung and Kim Dokja. While I personally do not believe that Dokja has any kind of romantic interest in her, their relationship is definitely too complex to simply label it as "romantic", "platonic" or anything else. The novel spends much time on both of them, their feelings for each other, their interactions and so on, as they are 2 of the 3 most important characters in the story. While I do really enjoy the dynamic between them that the ship tries to undermine (reader x writer), I simply can not imagine both of them within a relationship. Their dynamic screams best friends to me, and seems to be too what Dokja sees her at, though he doesn´t directly state it. If he saw one of his companions as his equal, than it was Sooyung first. He often relied and soley trusted her to do what is needed for their common goal, he respected her and her views and probably felt the most comfortable around her company. He rarely allowed himself to be vulnerable around others, though he did not seem to mind so much if it was her. The reason for that are many, too many and would simply lead to another topic altogether.
One such scene, where Dokja shows her a very personal and vulnerable side of his, is during his birthday (Ch. 372). The scene can be divided in roughly two parts, concerning the way they act with each other. In the beginning, the vibe is pretty much as always. Han Sooyoung teases him and does not refrain from being touchy while doing so, pinching his cheek and calling him adorable. Dokja does not really react in any way to that or seems affected on an emotional level, apart from him having the realization that he was treated as a fool. He mainly reacts very neutral to her teasing, as this is what their relationship mostly looks like, them teasing and riling each other up. And still, it is evident that they do deeply care for each other. Han Sooyung quickly switches up the moment she realizes Dokja is crying, and shows active concern for him. She asks him to stop and in the end pushes one of her lemon lollipops into his mouth in an attempt to calm him down. To put it shortly, she tries to cheer him up in any way possible, even though she definitely is not the kind of person to do so generally, and Dokja lets it happen. When she mentions that she "want[s] to see the others", he agrees and follows her. But her caring for him so deeply and Dokja letting it happen only shows exactly that, that they care for each other. Sure, you could interpret it as romantic, but it is (or at least should be) natural to be vulnerable around at least one of your friends.
There are similar scenes though, which do seem to have a romantic flair to them. At one point before, Han Sooyung becomes quite provocative, pushing the lemon lollipop she was "sucking" on straight into Dokja´s mouth (Ch. 337). Not only does this classify as an indirect kiss, but it was also directly enforced by Sooyung, by her free will. She actively decided to create a situation like that and was quite bolt in doing so. Dokja does not really understand the underlying message that action seems to have. To put it simply, he does not even come to think of it as a kind of flirting. He simply "ate the candy" while being painfully oblivious. Here again, there is no reaction from Dokja which indicates any kind of romantic feelings or likewise on his side. He simply answers after Sooyung explicitly points out that she was eating that exact same lollipop with "So?" (typical Dokja move). The scene is mentioned again way later shortly. While extracting memories to use for writing the novel needed for their plan to get Dokja back, the memory sucked out of Han Sooyung was that exact moment (Ch 555). She does not seem too happy about the fact that the others came to see the moment, specifically as Jung Heewon teases her as to "why [she] did [...] omit such a delicious scene from the main story." Han Sooyung does not say anything and simply "angrily gnash[es] her teeth", while carrying on with the story fragment extraction on the others. I suppose that reaction comes from her finding that memory to be too personal. It is after all, one of her few cherished memories she still has left with Dokja together, alone. Looking at that scene and in connection to others, I do not think it is too far fetched to believe that maybe Han Sooyung harbours romantic feelings, tho within the complexity of their relation, for Kim Dokja. I myself am not really sure of it, but I would not dissmiss that possibility wihout a second thought. And still, her doing so has no direct significance on the question if Dokja does so too.
Another scene I want to mention, is the moment Dokja first meets the Punisher. He describes her in a quite detailed way (as he does with every good-looking person that he sees) and even goes as far as too say that her "beauty [...] would slap Yoo Joonghyuk on the cheeks three times." (Ch 228). The expression is used in twsa, and Dokja adopts it as a way to describe the beauty of other people. If I remember correctly, the only person he ever believes to be of such beauty to slap Yoo Joonghyuk´s cheek three times (!!) is indeed Punisher. In Dokja´s eyes, she is therefor described to be the most beautiful person he ever saw. The expression itself (in connection to slapping the Protagonist´s cheeks) is used way more often though. To be more precisely, he uses it to describe not only the Punisher, but also Jang Hayoung (two times) (Ch 228), Apollon (two times) (Ch 333) and Kyrigos (one time) (Ch 407), to only name a few. His little scale of beauty obviously is just that and has no validity on saying if and what romantic feelings he might harbor for the described person. Dokja uses it for women and men alike, mainly those he 100% shows no romantic interest in.
In fact, after seeing Punisher for the first time, the only thing which is of lasting interest to him, is his dire whish to recruit her. Shortly after mentioning her beauty, he instantly recognizes that her "level of swordsmanship" is impossible for an incarnation (Ch 228). He develops a kind of obsession of her due to that, centered around that discovery and asks Jang Hayoung multiple further question about her, knowing that she answered thinking that he asked for another reason. He catches on though (surprisingly) and instantly states that it is "not like that." (Ch 229). Seeing not only the most beautiful woman in his life before him, but even the most beautiful person, the only thing he is continuously bothered to think of and talk about is her power and her usefulness for his further plans. And this attitude of Dokja´s towards her never changes.
The last fact I want to mention slightly contradicts a previous statement of mine. Dokja did indeed have somewhat of romantic feelings for another character, and that even canonically. And that is, or rather was, during his 3rd year of middle school, so way before the start of the novel. His young teenage self had a crush on Lee Jihye (Ch 369). Not only is this way before the novel starts, but therefor also way before twsa becomes reality. She is simply a "fictional" character in Kim Dokja´s little reality. And obviously, during the events of the novel he is absolutely not interested in her. Hell, she is only seventeen and he already 28. I suppose his past crush is the reason though, why there are sometimes those uncomfortable jokes coming from Lee Jihye concerning the possibility of him liking her...and the pedo allegations.
There are exactly two reasons that I believe explain his past crush. The first is that Dokja´s reflection within twsa is Kim Namwoon, the same teenage boy who pinned after Lee Jihye in every timeline that he knew her and for over thousands of years during the 999th one. Both of them being in love with Lee Jihye is simply one of the many parallels between them. The second reason is also connected to Kim Namwoon in one way, but more so to Yoo Joonghyuk. Lee Jihye is not only his disciple, but she admires her master violently and is very vocal about wanting to be just like him. He is her idol, the (wo)men she wishes to become like as she grows up and she actively works and trains so that he can be proud of the version of her that she will slowly become. This is the main reason behind Kim Namwoon´s somewhat embarrassing tries to copy Yoo Joonghyuk, become like him and gain Lee Jihye´s attention in that way. In concern to Dokja though, I believe that connection has another significants. He is just as vocal about his past admiration and past idolization of Yoo Joonghyuk to the reader. Recognizing those abilities which he adored so deeply in his idol and reason for staying alive in a teenage girl, being a teen himself, he might have developed that love for Lee Jihye. What he loved so much about her, was her similarity to the man he has always loved. Though I suppose it comes easier as a teenage boy to fall in love with a teen girl, than whatever Yoo Joonghyuk was for him back then.
To wrap my little essay/analysis up: no matter if you want to believe that Dokja is gay or aroace or whatever, the novel is very very clear in the lack of romantic interesst that he has for women. That is not due to his lack of contact to them, not due to lack of them being interested in him, nor due to his lack of finding them good-looking or even attractive. He simply is not- that´s it. In my opinion, every interaction he ever has had with a woman was completely devoid of romantic interest for them.
Thank you a lot for reading all those paragraphs till the end (if you did)!!! I´d be happy to read your, dear reader, follow up thoughts to this little topic. I wish you a good (rest) day!
(The citations and information are directly taken out from the fan-translated EPub (converted into PDF by me) version from 2021-10-27. I have added the specific chapters for nearly all of them. I did not add the lines, as they are not present in the version I read/cited and I am too lazy and not insane enough to start to count. And I suppose the lines differ depending on which translated (or not) version you may have read. The changes I did for the citations were always solely to fit them into my sentences in a grammatically correct way.)
