AHEM. Hi, u see my username already but call me in any variation of it (Specs or smth like that), pronouns are she/he and I like queer ships in my gacha games (playing Genshin, HSR primarily, a lil bit of ZZZ). Also I like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
I post a lot of stuff and currently I like posting BL reviews and Turning (BL) posts. That's all byeeeee
I wonder what the people only just getting into the GSGW manhwa (no prior knowledge) think of half the fandom going bonkers over the giant man with a tv head- Wait no, forgot who I'm talking to. I mean that, he's only shown up once by now, do they know that him being a giant man with a tv for a head, who wears a suit and gloves, has nothing to do with how popular he is?
Breaking News: The guy who always wins his bets wins another bet!
Aventurine now outranks Pearl, who runs a planet. So can we please put the "he's powerless" claims to bed?
Every time any form of interaction between Aventurine and the IPC gets brought up in the game, I just grit my teeth now, because it inevitably revives the (literally) years-long debate: "Aventurine never wanted to join the IPC!" "Aventurine is a slave and has to stay in the IPC or they'll kill him!" "Aventurine was going to be executed for breaking his cornerstone!" "Aventurine hates the IPC!"
Saveeeee meeeee pleaseeeee.
I just don't know how the game can continually drop stuff like this:
This is, in fact, Jade telling Aventurine he can quit the IPC. At least 40% of this fanbase owed Jade an apology yesterday.
Yet the fandom can still struggle so much to understand that Aventurine is not the faultless victim that people seem to so dearly want him to be.
We not only now have in-game confirmation that Aventurine's after Oswaldo Schneider, but we even have confirmation that the entire Strategic Investment Department is after Oswaldo Schneider, which means that Topaz, Jade, and the other Stonehearts, are, in fact, Aventurine's genuine allies. He's not "using" the IPC to achieve his personal vendetta without his coworkers' knowledge--his personal vendetta is a standing Strategic Investment Department agenda item. They are all drinking the Hateraid together.
Aventurine's exactly where he (thinks) he needs to be right now.
Accumulating power through his employment with the IPC is not only what Aventurine originally wanted long ago when he got himself caught for the desert scheme--it's exactly what he wants right now, because everything in the Strategic Investment Department's plans aligns perfectly to his individual goals. Aventurine bet he'd get a promotion following Penacony because he wanted one. (Were we really out here thinking that the guy who always wins his bets would bet on something he didn't want? 😭)
Furthermore, this new SP description confirms that Aventurine was never at risk of execution for breaking his cornerstone. I still have no idea why people ran away with that idea when both Aventurine and the Myriad Celestia video itself confirm the only actual punishment on the table was losing his power:
Butttttt even if execution was an option they were putting on the scales, Aventurine already knew the outcome of the decision before the votes were ever cast. Aventurine wasn't in any danger, even from the start, because he already knew Diamond would decide in his favor:
Just as Aventurine said all the way back in 2.1, Diamond is explicitly a "ends justify the means" kind of person, and he acted exactly as Aventurine predicted, granting him a reward for his stunt in Penacony rather than any form of punishment. Aventurine knows the people he's working with. He knows the system and can play it like a fiddle. He's not Aventurine of STRATAGEMS for no reason, come onnnnn people. In this high-stakes game called life, the IPC is Aventurine's "hotel on Broadway," providing him everything he needs--it's extremely unlikely he'll be leaving them any time soon.
And this just continues to confound and frustrate people when it comes to talking about his character. Over and over again, it's "Aventurine isn't like the IPC; he wouldn't do the kinds of things they stand for!" or "He's only there to get revenge; he hates everything they do and doesn't support their colonizer land-grabs at all!"
But he has.
His primary role is in serving the Ten Stonehearts' "asset liquidation" function--that is, overthrowing anyone who fails to comply with the IPC's plans. He has murdered people specifically for the IPC; it's right there in his character story! D;
We had an entire subplot in Penacony about the noble struggle of the native Penaconians who gave their literal lives to free their planet from the tyranny of the IPC--and Aventurine went in and deliberately took that freedom away again. He has never expressed even the slightest regret for rewinding the clock on the centuries-long revolution that Hanunue and Mikhail died for. He effectively did to Penacony exactly what was done to his own planet and then got rewarded for it.
Aventurine is every bit as much of an IPC lapdog as any other member of the Ten Stonehearts--even less empathetic than some (Pearl, at least)--and has never claimed to be anything else.
In fact, the game goes out of its way to try to hammer this home by often refusing to let the Trailblazer respond to Aventurine in anything but a vaguely standoffish manner, repeatedly calling him out for being with the IPC--despite Trailblazer managing to befriend everyone else and be perfectly cordial with former enemies like Sunday, Skott, and Topaz. The game drills it into our heads constantly that, at least until my boy Sugilite Diamond drops, Aventurine is the IPC poster boy.
And people just can't stomach that, so they keep inventing this alternative version of him who is more sympathetic, less responsible for his own actions, who never meant to join the IPC, or who has no choice in his morally questionable schemes against others. It's big bad Jade's fault. It's fate's fault. It's anyone but Aventurine's fault.
But that's just... not the point of this character...
From the very beginning, all the way back to his days in the desert, one of the central aspects of Aventurine's character is the need to survive, because he carries the legacy and hopes of not only his entire clan but also specifically of his mother and sister, who died to preserve his life and believed that he would bring their people prosperity one day. Even if "their people" is now only him, the struggle to not end up squandering what his family bled and died for has haunted Aventurine's narrative from the time he was tiny.
Despite how much he has personally wavered--even clearly wanting to give up--Aventurine's story is, at its core, about living on no matter the cost. And the truth is that sometimes "the cost" of Aventurine's survival is other people's lives. More than 30 people went into the death maze when Aventurine was a slave, and only Aventurine came out, because when push comes to shove, he has to endure. Even while hoping it will happen, he can't allow himself to die a meaningless death or simply fade into obscurity. He's got to do his family proud.
First that meant getting into the IPC to try to bring them resources and aid. And then, failing that, now it (at least partially) means capitalizing on the convenient goal of the Strategic Investment Department to get one up on Oswaldo Schneider. It means doing everything he can to amass more wealth, more power, and more authority to fortify his own position. And it might even mean stabbing people in the back, if that truly becomes the only option.
(I'm actually inclined to think that Aventurine is rather more loyal than he paints himself and is unlikely to stab anyone in the back if he could absolutely avoid it, but if there was truly no other way to keep going...)
Of course, it's impossible to really judge Aventurine for any of this!
Everyone wants to survive, everyone does everything in their power to preserve themselves when things get ugly. The intention of gaining wealth and power to help family and allies is a noble quest. Revenge on a bad person is usually treated as justified in fiction, so going after Oswaldo is viewed very positively by the players.
But where is the line?
At what moment does one's desire for power, wealth, material comforts, and even revenge exceed the realm of nobility and become greed? Can gold gained by evil means ever be truly clean? If you're seeking riches for a good reason but still trampling over the less fortunate to get them, can your "good reason" ever really be justified?
In your quest to survive, to thrive, to be avenged, what--and who--are you willing to sacrifice?
That's the point of this character.
Aventurine has always been a walking contradiction: The victim who now helps victimize others, the colonized who now helps colonize, the eternal winner who has lost everything, with pockets full of money but with nothing worth cherishing, wanting to die and yet clinging to life.
He entire role in the story is to present us with a nuanced picture of the IPC's impact on the HSR universe:
Unlike Topaz whose conscience is still (mostly) clear (perhaps only by sheer force of will at this point), Aventurine is fully aware that the IPC is evil. He's not under any illusion that they're actually a force of good for the universe. He doesn't buy the "We help poor planets that can't help themselves" propaganda in the slightest, and he's made it clear that he doesn't actually approve of the methods some of his own coworkers (namely Opal) will stoop to. He thinks the IPC are pretty shitty people, and doesn't reserve that opinion just for Oswaldo Schneider.
But he also contributes to the system knowing it is fundamentally evil.
He willingly joined the organization that contributed to his sister's death. He willingly helps undermine planets' freedoms the same way his own was oppressed. While people continue to struggle to survive across the universe, Aventurine takes the "meaningless" wealth he's amassed and blows it on million dollar perfume and pink diamonds.
He lives the polar opposite life he had in his childhood: Now he has otherworldly strength, now he has riches, now he has every comfort imaginable, now he has a pseudo-mother figure and a pseudo-sister figure, so he's never alone... Now he is needed, now he is successful, now his blessing serves its purpose and actually helps him advance, now he can pursue a goal of getting justice for his people again...
Everything Aventurine currently wants out of life, he can get from the IPC. So why wouldn't he be there willingly?
(Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying Aventurine likes the IPC. He's never claimed to be genuinely loyal to them, never seemed like he particularly enjoys his job, and even in the recent description of the SP talks about having to "force a smile" for the camera. He's not under any illusions that the IPC is the coolest, bestest, greatest company to work for ever. But he stays because, in his mind, the benefits outweigh the small, small cost of his morals. Maybe he thinks he already lost those long ago, so there's no morals left for him to lose anyway.)
It's not actually a healthy situation. The IPC is probably one of the worst possible places in the universe for him to be. They definitely contributed to his genuine desire for suicide in Penacony, and the cognitive dissonance that working for the same company that left your family to die would bring with it would be staggering.
But being a "bad victim" is the point. Being willing to bed down with the bad guys for personal gain is the point. We're supposed to recognize Aventurine's willingness to stain his own hands, and even as we sympathize with his motives--protecting himself, treasuring the legacy of his family by valuing his own life more, seizing Oswaldo Schneider's power and influence--we should recognize that the situation is not so easily labelled black and white, that the Strategic Investment Department being better than the Marketing Development Department doesn't make them good people--that having noble intentions does not always confirm the ends will justify the means.
I'm not sure how many more times the devs have to stamp "I-P-C" on Aventurine's forehead before people will start to finally entertain the idea that he's not a "hapless prisoner who would surely never do bad things to other people if the meanies weren't forcing him to."
I can't believe that we're like two years in and I'm still begging people to let the morally grey characters be actually morally grey. 😭
The first time I ever learned of this ship was when I first learned about Braun.
No context, just saw a couple fanart of him and thought he looked cool as fuck. Shortly after that, I also saw he was paired up with this human guy, in which I never realized said human was wearing a mask cuz my memories of that time was really foggy. What followed a long time afterward was a bunch of people hyping up the upcoming manhwa adaptation for gsgw and I thought 'Oh damn that's neat' until I found out that's where the TV head man came from.
I knew from that moment forward that I was interested.
Gsgw is a rollercoaster I didn't realize I needed (no pun intended). The non-canon yaoi hooked me in, obviously enough, but the story? The plot? It was something I came to love from beginning to the end.
Kim Sol-eum is an interesting protagonist when he's dropped into an insane world filled with internet horror stories come to life due to being a natural scaredy-cat with a really good poker face. Otherwise, he's a pretty normal guy that you wouldn't think twice about if he ever walked past you on the street. And that is already a good point to look at.
For me at least, normalcy is a theme in gsgw in which our protagonist's main goal is to return to his mundane world without the living creepypastas terrorizing him. A place where, in all seriousness, is far more safer and predictable than the unpredictable world of Dark Exploration Records. To Sol-eum, the real world is safe, it is home. And it's a place that's normal. When we look in the world he ended up in, not everyone is normal in it, on account of living in an era where horror stories on the internet come to life and getting into one could mean certain death. One has to throw away something to survive a Darkness, even if it means discarding your morals, values, or perhaps your humanity.
But that's an intriguing theme in of itself due to Kim Sol-eum himself. The story started out with him narrating what Dark Exploration Records is and how it came to be, with Sol-eum introduced as a normal office worker who, in his boredom, got hooked into the deep lore of this expansive creepypasta that he became a fan. It's telling that the person who was invested in a creepypasta world ends up getting trapped in said world and now wants to return to his mundane life. It brings to mind what Braun said about Sol-eum.
And Sol-eum's response to this?
Kim Sol-eum is a scaredy-cat, a person who is just afraid of anything frightening. And yet he consumed a piece of media that would have turned someone like him off. But because of Dark Exploration Records' lore, characters, and worldbuilding, he naturally got hooked into the exact thing he fears.
This isn't to say that he'd want to stay in this creepypasta-infested world, but it's the complex feelings he has when he's in Dark Exploration Records that makes it different. He's afraid of being in danger, of terrifying ghosts and monsters or beings that could kill him if he ever makes the wrong move. As an observer who's only read and even contributed to making Dark Exploration Records, he felt safe and in power. But in a world that would naturally scare the bejeezus out of someone like him, he would want to go back home. And yet, it still didn't change the fact that he didn't hate it.
Yes, he got transported to a place where he's gonna get his ass killed if he so much as breathe or something, but he found himself in the world he's read about. The stories he's been so invested in all this time, bringing a bit of life to his mundanity, recognizing the darknesses, the characters, the events that would unfold. For a wuss like Sol-eum, it's a nightmare turned reality. For a person who read the interesting and riveting stories and worldbuilding of Dark Exploration Records, it's kind of like a fantasy. Not a fantasy or dream come true, but something you've been so interested that made your boring adult life a little more fun into a reality.
(It's just Sol-eum's luck that his special interest was a creepypasta world. Go figure)
All the more intriguing for Sol-eum, knowing who he became close with throughout the novel.
I will say this right now that I didn't finish the novel or reach the latest chapter, having only gotten to chapter 132. But the recent development in with Sol-eum and his 'good friend' made me want to write this whole post. So here we are.
For all of Sol-eum's cowardice throughout this novel, it's funny knowing who he's close with on an almost personal level.
Braun is, by far, the most powerful being in gsgw (by up until Chapter 132, that is). His relationship with Sol-eum is more than just a power imbalance, it's like putting a hydrogen bomb next to a coughing baby. Their first interaction could have never gotten worse with an error with Daydream that got a squad killed and put Squad D in danger if it weren't for Sol-eum coming in clutch. But Sol-eum only did what he did because he was pushed to do so – otherwise, he never would have found the need to manipulate Braun using the smiley stickers and the Alice drink if this routine darkness clear went smoothly.
Braun proved himself to be a dangerous entity that could kill Sol-eum if he wanted to and he did in a few occasions for the sake of his TV show. Seeing this power-imbalance, eldritch being x terrified human duo and you've got yourself a deliciously good toxic yaoi.
But it surprised me when Braun exhibited behaviors that's outside his initial character. For a man like him, he's first and foremost an entertainer. He acts in front of an audience, knows how to keep their attention, comes up with solutions to mishaps on the fly, and lives to entertain. Braun values his talk show like nothing else, willing to kill even special guests like the butcher if they dare to disrupt his show. And, y'know, he's meant to be an unpredictable and highly dangerous supernatural entity.
Initially, he was presented as such with his interactions with Sol-eum moving forward from that arc until a certain point. Though he was partially influenced by the stickers (which now on second thought, he probably was never affected by them in the first place and was just caught up in that Sol-eum rizz), he still showed interest in Sol-eum and wished to see him again. His opinion of Sol-eum was so favorable that he was willing to help the poor guy out of the amusement park darkness.
Though that example doesn't mean much when Braun just wanted to bring Sol-eum's natural acting ability and charisma onto his TV show, it doesn't really change the fact that he bonded with Sol-eum all the while as a plush toy.
And to be frank, despite Sol-eum's evaluation of Braun's behavior being influenced by the 'good friend' doll, I don't think a super powerful otherworld being like Braun could be affected by the doll. The most that doll did was act as a medium for a portion of Braun's spirit, not really making much of a difference to his demeanor or his interactions with Sol-eum. But it did something that made me pleasantly surprised – it gave way for Sol-eum and Braun to genuinely form a bond.
Right now where I'm at in the novel, they're at a tentative standstill. Sol-eum was sweet talked into agreeing to become a part of Braun's talk show, appealing to the former's wish to stay safe from the craziness and life-threatening world of Dark Exploration Records, which he rejected once Lee Jaehon helped him come to his senses. Braun put up a good fight to keep Sol-eum inside his darkness and showed the lengths he'd go through to ensure Sol-eum doesn't escape.
But the moment there was a sign Sol-eum was getting harmed? He put a hold on his own talk show to panic when Sol-eum's plush form was ripped apart, being so blatant that for all his bravado and reasons for why he wants Sol-eum to stay, he genuinely cares about the man. And Sol-eum caught onto that – all cuz he went through the same thing when Braun's 'good friend' form was sliced open. For Sol-eum, Braun's abnormal behavior was a product of the 'good friend' doll effects, but for Braun to literally do the same thing Sol-eum did? I highly doubt Braun's actions was because of that item.
Even though they agree to just be friends instead of 'good friends', there's no denying that these events caused a change to their dynamic. Where it was a somewhat safe and even sweet relationship between two people, they are now stripped of their many walls and see each other for who the other really is – and they let the other person know it. There's still a give-and-take here, and Sol-eum needed to mend things with Braun somewhat if this man is just gonna keep following him anywhere anyway. But it's obvious that they both care about each other in their own way. It's kind of blatant as to why.
For all their differences, Braun and Sol-eum have so many similarities with each other. They're both masters at acting who hide their true intentions from others and have knowledge and skills that others simply do no possess. Sol-eum was a bored office worker who lived a bland adult life until he became a fan of Dark Exploration Records that brought excitement to the mundanity of his daily routine, while Braun is an entertainer with a vision, who's being stomped down by higher-ups who don't honor his wishes (tbh I forgot he even had people above him dictating the direction of his talk show) until he broke free from it when he met Sol-eum.
These two seek fun when their world was dull. Sol-eum got the short end of the stick, that's for sure, though Braun loved the things that Sol-eum brought to the table. And despite Sol-eum's fears paralyzing him to quiver at the slightest hint of ghosts, he really loved the world of Dark Exploration Records and invested much of his working life reading everything there is to know about it.
They found comfort and a sort of kinship with each other due to their proximity and understanding of one another. Braun is one of the few people who sees past the many masks Sol-eum wears and knows this man is a coward who'd rather keep away from darknesses, and Sol-eum understands that beneath Braun's showbiz persona is a person who loved being a genuine friend to someone and still wishes for that friendship.
There's definitely still a power imbalance between them that puts Sol-eum in a bad spot if they ever get into a confrontation with each other, but I get the feeling that Sol-eum exhibits more resolve to stand above all things terrifying that could kill him if he's willing to save others.
Tip for anyone who's caught up with the Turning novel and is feeling a bit burnt out from reading.
It might be better to read chapters in bunches rather than reading them immediately when they come out.
In my personal experience, the reason Turning was so enjoyable when I first read it was because of the overarching storyline. When binging it, callbacks to certain storylines felt more intriguing & exiting.
But they can feel tedious when you want immediate gratification from point A to point B
Reading in bunches makes things less confusing and more fun for me
I just know that so many ppl are gonna hate me over this one opinion I've never bothered to talk abt in my life.
[Beware for Signora slander, especially after watching Sandrone's animated short]
I hate Signora–
It's not that I hate her character or her storyline/backstory; I don't feel anything strongly about her backstory considering that around the time I played the game, there wasn't much overtly obvious storytelling that explained her lore other than she was the Crimson Witch of Flames and she hates Venti with a passion. Any and all information I knew of her came from the wiki instead of the game.
No, the simple reason why I hate Signora is cuz...she was just genuinely an asshole lmao. An asshole that was arrogant, cocky, and self-assured in her actions that grated on me so strongly that among the many players who wishes she came back to life, I think 'Good riddance, she deserved it'. That's how much I hated her. She didn't come across as a girlboss to me even though for all intents and purposes, she is one considering she managed to get two gnoses and nearly got another. But y'know, she died getting the electro gnosis cuz she was so cocksure that she could beat the Traveler. Her attitude and actions in the beginning and throughout the game is what got her killed.
(the satisfaction I felt when she died at the hands of Raiden–)
I feel for the Harbinger girls for losing one of their own. Rosalyne was their family, however temporary. But bro she brought this upon herself, so yeah. She caused so much grief for everyone involved in her own schemes that in the end, she got her comeuppance.
(Also her whole thing about hating Venti for not protecting Mondstadt when it needed him? Bruh you try being a God who's already trying to protect Mondstadt while also suffering from extreme lethargy from using too much power, see what happens.)
Anyway my feelings about Signora's whole character is complicated, which I don't like cuz I wanna see her in a more nuanced outlook, but I just can't. I hate her, GOD–
Okay, this is the second time I've been tagged for one of those verification scams in replies, (ETA: I've being tagged for them 9 or more times in 2 and half days, but only two of them have shut down my browser.), and when I go to the page to report and block it my browser shuts down. I end up having to manually paste the page in a report form, or add it to my blocklist. I know nothing about tech stuff, but is it possible they're putting something in the page to mess with browsers in order to try and not be reported? Having it happen with two different ones doesn't feel like a coincidence. I use Firefox btw.
Gsgw is a great read for a horror genre because it doesn't just encompass the horror itself but also the humorous irony in which Kim Sol-eum found himself in. Imagine being branded as this golden rookie who could finish a ghost story in under an hour, have such a calm and composed demeanor, and is overall competent and respectful – when in reality this guy just has a really good poker face that hides how fucking terrified he is LMAOOO.
But what really gets me is that, in general, anything scary terrifies Sol-eum, but what truly gets his skin crawling are just plain ol' ghosts. Nope, not the serial killer, not the freakazoid clowns, not even Braun – it's ghosts. This guy's both a coward and a trooper for how much he avoids dying and accidentally or intently saving other people.
(Still don't know how Sol-eum still isn't getting the red flag alert on Braun's true darkness grade cuz there's so many damn signs that points to this guy NOT being a simple low-to-mid grade darkness entity.)
