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devine-fem

The lovers…

enragedandy

finally some peace

elalalune

Uriel drains all of eden's coins😔

Based on this:

a-reader-love

★ yui ★ - original post

charcharmaru

visiting the first murim

aroacexuemeng

PLEASE give us your top ten kdj/yjh moments <3

Ok so this only took me about 2 months to finally get around to putting the list together but anyway here we go (also it’s very long and i spent 5 entire hours writing this all up lmao)

Top 10 Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk moments from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

Big spoilers my friends

1.「Incarnation Kim Dokja will be killed by the person he loves most.」

Yeah you've read the novel you know how it is. Next.

2. The Demon Realm Reunion

There was a flustered laugh as relief spread from deep inside my heart. I wonder why. I glanced at Aileen's wrist watch at this moment. The clock wasn't going backwards. The time was advancing steadily without rewinding. The needle could go back but time wouldn't return.

"...He came." I was so happy that I wanted to call out his name. -- I smiled and said, "The real Yoo Joonghyuk came." I couldn't see or hear it but I could feel it. That person was definitely in this world. (chapter 220)

These two really pulled a whole Call Me By Your Name re-enactment like?? they each started a revolution and conquered entire cities in the other's name, thereby causing the entire Star Stream to crash for like a week because nobody knew how to deal with this unprecedented public courtship display.

3. The pocket watch arc (aka my favourite motif)

I suddenly seemed to understand a bit of his mind. To the regressor Yoo Joonghyuk, the time in these worlds didn't belong to him. In a life that could go back over and over again, the present time was meaningless. Once this was over, I would ask Aileen to make me a watch. If he had something like this, he might become more attached to this world. Maybe the regression depression would get better... (chapter 207)

The extent that YJH matters to KDJ.... *sobs* Long quote incoming but this really is one of my favourite scenes ever:

It was a hospital room. He could feel the texture of a soft bed and his right hand touched something hard. Yoo Joonghyuk raised his upper body with a groan and saw a small pocket watch wrapped around his arm with a watch strap. The moving hands of the clock were like his heartbeat. Yoo Joonghyuk looked down at his watch.

Yoo Joonghyuk looked up at the sky. The sky was bright enough that the light of the stars wasn't needed. He counted the light of the constellations beyond them. He counted and counted again. He didn't know. There were so many stars that he couldn't find the person. -- It must be an error. He sent the message repeatedly, several times over and over. He sent it, sent it and sent it again.

As the messages kept being returned, Yoo Joonghyuk's gaze slowly lowered. Then finally, 「You have exceeded the quota for today's messages.」 There was a ticking pocket watch in the foreground while messages filled Yoo Joonghyuk's vision. 「The constellation 'Demon King of Salvation' doesn't exist in the Star Stream.」「The constellation 'Demon King of Salvation' doesn't exist in the Star Stream.」「The constellation 'Demon King of Salvation' doesn't exist in the Star Stream.」「The constellation --- (chapter 281)

Mmmm *chefs kiss* IT'S ABOUT THE DESPERATION. THE SOUND OF THE TICKING POCKET WATCH AS THE CHAPTER CONCLUDES BY REPEATING THE SAME STATEMENT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN LIKE THE SOUND OF HIS HEARTBEAT BUILDING UP.

Then later followed by the part where KDJ is reminiscing to a comatose YJH about all their past encounters and joint battles only to fall asleep next to him and wake up to THIS:

The dim moonlight was coming in through the window. It was a bare hospital room. I slowly rubbed my eyes. Then I realised something was wrong. "...Yoo Joonghyuk?" The bed was empty. Yoo Joonghyuk couldn't be seen anywhere in the room. -- I hurriedly got up but I couldn't feel Yoo Joonghyuk anywhere. On the bed, the pocket watch with the familiar design remained. (chapter 355)

IT'S ABOUT THE PARALLEL BETWEEN YJH WAKING UP (in a hospital room) TO A WORLD WITHOUT KDJ WHILE WEARING THE WATCH HE GOT FROM HIM, TO KDJ WAKING UP (also in a hospital room, just for good measure) TO A WORLD WITHOUT YJH WITH ONLY THE WATCH LEFT BEHIND THAT HE ORIGINALLY GAVE HIM. IT'S ABOUT THE SYMBOLISM.

4. Kim Dokja x 1864th round Yoo Joonghyuk

[What? They were fighting and holding each other by the collar a few hours ago...] In the distant place, Kim Dokja seemed to be stroking Yoo Joonghyuk’s head. Looking at this scene, Gabriel was reminded of Uriel and herself. It was different but there was some resemblance. (chapter 288)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: KDJ is such an unreliable narrator who doesn’t tell us anything half of the time even if it’s directly related to the plot, much less if it’s not relevant to the scenarios. For all we know, these two could be holding hands in every scene they are together and we would be none the wiser. Considering they have held hands during battle, they could very well continue doing that outside battle and KDJ has just conveniently decided to omit that from the narrative.

Of course we can’t forget about the legendary moment that comes right after: “Yoo Joonghyuk, eat the soil.”

5. The returnee’s reunion

Midday Tryst was a temporary item. After a certain time elapsed, the period of use had to be extended by paying additional coins. Yet Midday Tryst was activated without delay. In other words, someone had been extending that period of time. (chapter 304)

Keep in mind that KDJ has been gone for THREE YEARS and there was no reason to think he would be back or even alive, yet YJH continuously extended the use of their private chat window. (And later on we see he was even using it as his own little notes app to write about the members of KDJC on the off-chance that KDJ would read them omg that's so endearing wtf that's literally so cute??) And then of course the reunion itself:

We fought desperately as if it was the only conversation we could share with each other. -- I couldn't help smiling. I thought this whole thing was a misunderstanding. I thought Yoo Joonghyuk attacked me because he didn't recognize me. Nevertheless, it wasn't like that. -- Yoo Joonghyuk recognized me and knew I would come here. I didn't know how it was possible but it was obvious. He was waiting for me here. (chapter 304)

*cries* also note how before KDJ landed on Earth he said “I’m going to look for somebody” and the Flying Fox was like “Oho do you have a lover waiting?” and KDJ legit just smiled at him. *dries tears* anyway moving on

6. This absolute shoujo manga moment

If it fails, I would die here. At this moment, the weight of the spear lightened. Someone was also holding onto the spear from behind me. -- “Kim Dokja, there is only one chance.” It was an eternal ‘once’. A ‘once’ made with the countless failures of the regressor. “It has always been ‘once’ for me.” Thus, this one chance couldn’t fail. We threw the spear at the same time. (chapter 331)

No wonder it was nominated for Best Chemistry Award at the Banquet of Good And Evil

7. The re-introduction on Reincarnation Island

"My name is Kim Dokja. Twenty-eight... No, wait. I was twenty-eight, and I was an employee of a game company. My hobby was reading web novels...” As if I was talking to someone I met for the first time, I continued to tell my own story. “It’s pathetic, right? Well, this is who I am... Yoo Joonghyuk, who are you?”

To me, Yoo Joonghyuk was someone I ‘knew’ since from a long time ago. To be more specific, he was someone I read all about myself. That was why I had never heard about his story in his own words. He finally opened his mouth. “I am Yoo Joonghyuk. -- Yoo Joonghyuk, a former regressor.” (chapter 370)

THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT HERE!!! KDJ’s coming to terms with YJH being his own person, taking a step to genuinely introducing himself and getting to know someone after a lifetime of loneliness and isolation, YJH’s no longer defining himself as a regressor, and of course the development in their dynamic as Companions of Life and Death. And KDJ’s resolution to not use Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint on YJH anymore because that would reduce him to a character again. It’s brilliant.

8. Yoo Joonghyuk vs. Secretive Plotter

[Why are you tring to rescue Kim Dokja? At the end of the day, isn’t he just another Constellation you hate so much?] --- “He, the ‘Demon King of Salvation’, might be a Constellation, but... -- That ‘Kim Dokja’... He isn’t a Constellation. No, he’s simply a human.” (chapter 415)

And to match KDJ understanding that YJH isn’t a character, we have YJH realising that KDJ is just human. It’s so simple yet means so much. The whole fight between YJH and SP is a wonder to read, like YJH’s devotion to KDJ, the length he is willing to go to save him, the way he also at one point used KDJ’s own words from their re-introduction above to describe him to the SP whilst adding his own explanations of why KDJ is so precious to them all. I’m crying.

9. Just... every soft and quiet moment between these two

I sneakily averted my gaze and began chowing the dumplings as well ... If I used the [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] here, I might have heard something more entertaining just now, but well, I swore not to use that anymore, so... “...It’s not that bad, I suppose,” I heard Yoo Joonghyuk’s nearly-inaudible muttering and quietly looked up at the sky.

The stars of the night sky sparkled as they looked down at us, as if the destruction of the worlds was a story belonging to a distant realm. While chewing the dumpling, I began thinking this for the first time. That I wouldn’t have minded this story going on for a little while longer. (chapter 429)

There are so many quiet moments that I just absolutely adore - their first talk on the rooftop at the beginning of the story, in the Demon Realm when they had a proper conversation for the first time over a cup of tea, the aftermath of the Proof of the Stars scenario when they just lay on the floor exhausted and content, confident in being companions instead of betrayer and betrayed.

But if i had to pick just one to make the cut for this list, it would be this scene when they were re-enacting the Journey to the West. Same scenario where KDJ is technically still in disguise but we now know that the others were aware of who it really was all along, and YJH never hesitated to treat KDJ’s wounds with the most valuable potions. I love how YJH always seems like such a down-to-Earth guy whenever he’s just eating his favourite dumplings. I love how KDJ is sticking to his resolution not to treat YJH as a character by using the skill. I love how the first time KDJ is content just living in the present is at this so ordinary moment, standing next to YJH.

10. The World of Zero

“The world that I designed. the one that Yoo Joonghyuk brought to reality. The 0th turn’s story, completed in this manner. “Sometimes, this peace feels like an illusion... And every now and then, I get the feeling that my life has been completed by someone else.” [Constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ is...]

“I didn’t mean to say I’m unhappy,” Yoo Joonghyuk smiled faintly. I dazedly stared at him for a moment there, having finally learned that he was capable of such a smile. --- “Tell me, you fool. If I continue to regress, will I get to meet you again?” (chapter 524)

The cause of my suffering. The reason for my sleepless nights. The origin of my tears. I just can’t get over it, the way that KDJ and YJH are made for each other, both narratively and symbolically. YJH was created for KDJ to help him live, but YJH the regressor as we know him wouldn’t exist in the first place without KDJ being destined to be his sponsor and keeping the story alive as the Oldest Dream. It comes full circle, the one wouldn’t exist without the other, this is some actual soulmate material. And YJH choosing to regress after a completely succesful round and fulfilling life, just to meet his Demon King of Salvation (WHICH HE DOES, AFTER 1864 ROUNDS. THAT’S ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED SIXTY FIVE LIFETIMES, JUST TO MEET ONE PERSON)

Literally no reincarnation story of several millennia could compare to the catharsis of reading the ORV epilogue for the first time and realising it took KDJ and YJH 1865 entire lives to meet face to face, and i’m telling you reincarnation AUs are the one thing i am the weakest for ever since i watched my first low budget C-drama on VHS tape back in 2009. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

sevendutchies

crying in the club rn

Ok so as much as I love Fitz and the Fool’s relationship for everything it is, I am of the firm belief that authors are trying to tell us something with their work. Robin Hobb didn’t sit down and go “I’m going to write sixteen novels and 10,000+ pages over the course of twenty years about this couple because I think it would be cute.” There’s something she’s trying to say with these characters that I think is very deliberate. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since I first read these books. I haven’t seen any posts talking about this, and so I wanted to make one myself.

We’re all aware that Fitz and the Fool are clearly two sides of the same coin: King’s jester/assassin, comedy/tragedy, prophet/catalyst, mind/matter, white/black, etc., and that they make each other “whole,” and I really think that it actually goes a step further.

I think Fitz/the Fool’s relationship is a metaphor for Fitz’s relationship with himself, and in a thematic sense, a metaphor for your relationship with yourself.

Fitz’s entire emotional storyline revolves around the fact that he is never capable of showing others his true self. Most of the time of course it is because there is a life/death risk for Fitz if people know who he really is. He can’t let people know about his heritage, his job, his magic, and these become parts of himself that he hates; he wants nothing more than to just let all of it go and live a normal easy life. It becomes impossible for him to form genuine connections with others because every relationship is based on lies on lies on lies.

The only person throughout his 70 odd years of life who truly knows everything about him is the Fool. The Fool knows everything about Fitz and loves him for it. And this is terrifying for Fitz. Because if Fitz were to embrace the Fool’s feelings for him, that would mean embracing all of the things he hates about himself and has been trying to run away from his entire life.

This is also shown narratively by the Fool’s presence/absence in Fitz’s life. With the Fool gone, Fitz has faked his death and lived alone as a hermit in the mountains for 15 years, running from his problems. Then the Fool returns, and Fitz’s story continues. The Fool leaves Fitz, and for 30 more years Fitz is left living a stagnant, superficial life in Withywoods. And then the Fool returns to him again, and finally their story gets its conclusion.

And as support/some honorable mentions, you can see this dynamic mirrored in almost every other character. Althea, Wintrow, Malta, Sedric, Alise, Bee…all of their stories center on the idea of self discovery and coming to terms with their existence. And of course the greatest story of self discovery would be told through the two main characters, when Fitz and the Fool are finally reunited, and immortalized as a Whole being in the stone.

Even in their names…..everyone has their faults and hates themselves in some way, but the self is also something that is indescribably precious. Sometimes you’re an idiot who makes mistakes, but you’re still something to cherish: the beloved. And that’s what’s so important to me about this metaphor. We find out that the Fool’s real name is Beloved at the exact half-way point in the series. For Fitz, this is a journey from self hatred to self preservation and acceptance, and it’s why he struggles so much with defining his feelings for the Fool.

And in the quotes with the two of them, just imagine for a moment that this is a letter that you are reading to yourself:

“Beloved,

Was a time when I knew peace in your presence. Though, to be truthful with myself, there were as many times when your presence plunged me into deadliest danger. Or pain. Or fear. But the peace is what I remember and long for.”

How incredibly tender is that? It is such a powerful message of self love. To fear living as yourself, but cherishing it all the same. This is what it has always been for Fitz.

And again, when Fitz uses the Fool’s name for the first time. It is only after three entire books of Fitz/the Fool literally masquerading as other people (pretending you’re something you’re not) and going through the stress of never being able to drop their pretenses. Just like…..appreciate the tenderness and what it would feel like to say this to yourself:

“‘You said once that I might call you Beloved, if I no longer wished to call you Fool.’ I took a breath. ‘Beloved, I have missed your company.’”

im soft………

silverbastardgoldenfool

Okay so I’ve been thinking a lot about queerbaiting and - consequently - Realm of the Elderlings in that context. I knew while reading it that some people would consider it queerbaiting, and I couldn’t quite articulate why I wholeheartedly believed it wasn’t. But since I half-wake several times a night thinking about RotE because my brain is a fucking nightmare I woke up this morning with a bit of an epiphany.

Now obviously you can disagree with this, but here’s the biggest reason why I personally don’t see Fitz/Fool as queerbaiting: because if the Fool was femme-presenting, the story wouldn’t have been any different.

Imagine that Fitz had grown up thinking that the Fool was a girl. Every single thing the same, except Fitz grows up assuming that this friend of his is female. Apart from the accusatory stuff about his “unnatural” relationship with Lord Golden, nothing would be different. They still would have the same dynamic because the Fool was never defined by masculinity.

Now, I hear you saying, “But all those cold nights in the mountains! All those cuddles, and hand-holding and declarations of love! If the Fool was a woman, that would have gone further.”

But would it? I emphatically believe not. Not once does Fitz think, “Well gee, if only the Fool were a woman we could be together.” Nor does he think, “Well maybe if I had met Amber first…” Because it’s not about that. Also, we see evidence that Fitz can have a physically affectionate friendship with a woman while still having no doubts at all that it’s totally platonic. He and Kettricken share a bed and even kiss on the lips and it is NEVER portrayed as anything more than friendly.

“But it’s different with the Fool! The Fool is canonically in love with Fitz, and there is romantic tension between them.” I’m not arguing that at all. Fitz loves the Fool with all his lil heart and that’s what is so fucking devastating. Because he loves him more than anything, but he can’t give himself to him. And I’m not talking about sexually.

Here’s the thing: Fitz’s story - when considering the full scope of it including the ending - is basically a nine-book-long metaphor for the fear of vulnerability and then the beauty of letting people in fully. Fitz was not incapable of embracing the Fool’s love for him because he was too straight. He was too fucking scared. He didn’t know what to do with a love that really truly accepted him for who he was. For all he was, and not just parts of it. Male or not, do you think he would have paid any romantic attention to the Fool when he could go off chasing Molly Redskirts instead? Fitz justified his lying to Molly in a myriad of ways, but those lies were just extensions of the ones he told himself. He wanted - even in adulthood - to be with someone whose idea of him he could shape. The Fool always saw Fitz far too clearly; that in itself made Fitz uncomfortable, but to be truly seen and still loved fiercely? That was too much.

And speaking of “too much,” the Skill-link stuff is also a metaphor for the love and deep knowing that Fitz cannot face. Was it really “too much” or was it just too much for Fitz? The way he describes it leads you to think it’s dangerous, as if they would both lose themselves if they explored that link. So then why wasn’t the Fool afraid? The Fool knew they still had work to do. He wasn’t willing right there and then to give up his physical form and merge with Fitz in the Skill river. He wasn’t afraid because that’s not what was going to happen. I think all that was going to happen was that Fitz was going to have to feel the depth of the Fool’s unwavering love and acceptance, and that was too much.

This is why the ending is fucking beautiful. It’s the culmination of nine books’ worth of build-up - but is it plot? Action? Intrigue? No. It’s all character. Like holy shit. The ending is literally just our protagonist finally allowing himself to be known, to be loved, and to return that knowing and loving just as freely. No limits. Fuck I’m crying.

Don’t get me wrong, I was internally screaming at Fitz to just fucking kiss the Fool already the entire series. A part of me really wanted them to be together, but the storyteller in me knew it would never happen. And NOT because they were two males, but because it just wouldn’t have been right. The entire story would have had to change around them for them to be together. As devastating as it is, I’m much more satisfied with a haunting, symbolic ending than I would have been with a blatantly happy one. Their relationship was beautiful, intense, profound and… Indefinable. And I truly believe that defining it in any way would have undone so much of the intricate weaving that made us love them so much in the first place. Even Fitz’s own question of “what were we” goes unanswered. There is no answer. We don’t have a word for it. Lovers? Friends? Soulmates? It doesn’t do it justice.

No matter the Fool’s gender, a romance between Fitz and the Fool would have cheapened if not totally destroyed the larger meaning of the story. It would have made Fitz… Not Fitz. His inability to believe himself loved is so integral to his character. He could only surrender to it when he had literally nothing left to lose.

*crying intermission - damn you Hobb you brilliant bastard*

So. What it comes down to really is that where other authors cheapen their stories by dangling “gay moments” that never amount to anything for the sake of attempting to sate both queer and conservative audiences, Hobb stayed true to the real story the entire way through. The moments between Fitz and the Fool we love so much were not for us, the readers. They were for them, the characters. And that makes all the difference.

I know that when I inevitably read this series over and over, the Fitz/Fool scenes that tugged at my heart the first time will be no less powerful for knowing it never goes further (sexually or romantically). Those scenes don’t lose their meaning because they don’t lead to sex. An issue I have in general is the idea that romantic relationships are somehow superior to platonic or familial ones. And yes, I will continue to joke about Fitz “No-Homo” Farseer because his self-deception is extreme and hilarious and yes, a character flaw. But a believable and integral one. When I make those jokes I’m not implying that Robin should not have written him that way. I’m just ripping on Fitz because he’s a beautiful, precious little idiot.

This is - as I said - open for debate. This is just where I stand on the issue and I’m genuinely curious as to what other people think about this.

va-nnahs

The day Megumi meets his Divine dogs is also the last day he sees his dad, or so he thinks.

Headcanon that one of the most common games between the children of the Zenin clan is to make shawdow puppets (and is also used as a way to detect Ten shawdow users technique)

Megumi also learns how to do some of the most common shapes (Toji doesn’t remember that many), as a way to make him less afraid of the dark when he’s alone and Toji is away.