with all the discussion around hsy in the orv fandom recently, I'd like to ask what would you describe hsy's character as? I've read orv once recently (reread soon maybe) but I found it rlly hard to pinpoint what exactly makes her tick.
kdj and yjh (+ ysa to some extent) are relatively easy especially w the amount of analysis they have already but for hsy I'm only ever sure that she's lonely but very selfish and very stubborn (which honestly can be said for kdj and yjh too but it's different i just don't really know how to word it). most of discussions i find online contextualizes her character around kdj and yjh which is good but I still can't put hsy into words without overemphasizing certain parts of her thus accidentally making her a caricature rather than a Character. yk?
feel free to ignore. but i hope this comes off as a curious inquiry rather than a journalist shoving a mic at you T^T
well i would say the number one characterizing trait for han sooyoung for me would be her overwhelming embarrassingly spilling out heart she’s trying to stuff back in. due to her childhood (and ongoing) loneliness han sooyoung seems to have a very pessimistic worldview that results in a lot of isolation (her ‘3rd’ version casts herself as a villain and expresses distrust in humanity, and her 1863rd version, although seemingly in the opposite role of protagonist, still keeps herself apart from her companions). but she also cares. a lot! all over the place! even while she casts herself as the villain, she feels guilt for what she’s done (if only to those she later learns to care for) (e.g. her guilt over almost killing lee gilyoung and shin yoosoung). even though she sees the worst in kim dokja’s plans, she still carries through with them.
i chalk this up to her as a writer. she can’t help but understand people, their motivations, ideals, personalities, just as a writer can’t help but relate to and sympathize with their characters. similarly, although she tries not to, she can see the path towards a better future - as a writer, it’s her job to think about such possibilities. a writer who isn’t immersed in their work isn’t a writer at all, and so she can’t keep herself separate from others. that’s what i mean by her overwhelming heart. (however, that doesn’t mean she understands that they care for her as well, leading to a lot of loneliness for her (see: her relationship with kimcom during the three year gap and also the kaizenix arc)).
so you have this person who sees the worst in everything, including herself, but can’t help but try to reach out anyway. that’s what her selfishness and stubborness looks like to me - she knows that writing twsa will bring the worst to so many people, she’s not ignorant of it, but she does it anyway. she knows that trying to bring back 51% will end the false last act of 49%, and with it possibly kimcom’s last chance to be happy with him, but she can’t tolerate a kim dokja who doesn’t read her work even if everyone else could. not to overly idealise her - those examples may ultimately seem to be the right ones narratively, but when she lets her pessimism overtake her, her selfishness and stubbornness lead to a lot of misery for everyone involved. it just depends where in the story she is.
personality wise? it’s difficult to sum her up, and i’m not the best at writing characterization. i think she’s practical, putting herself first. i think she didn’t write twsa as a sacrifice but something she wanted to do, because she loves writing and she loves being read by kim dokja, and she wouldn’t have done it otherwise. i think she put yoo joonghyuk through everything she did, and she would do it so many times over, even if it means yoo mia never sees her big brother again, even if it means the world keeps dying <- order of importance to her. i think she cares a lot about kimcom. i don’t think she knows they care a lot about her back. i think she tries to imitate webnovels almost as much as kim dokja does, and i think she likes to the dramatic monologues and snarky banter of the villain role even if she doesn’t like the rest of it. i think she drinks tea with lee sookyoung and complains about whatever she can think of. i think she lets lee gilyoung play on her phone and convinces him to read sssss grade infinite regressor and calls it ‘corrupting the youth’. i think she doesn’t know how to call those things what they are. i think she’s a lot of things! all the time! it’s really hard to sum up! i hope this makes sense, even a little.
