#that it is SO easy to mischaracterize these characters or to assert something that

[rocaillefox]

orv spoilers ahead

something something kdj is so affected by his childhood trauma that he hates kim namwoon because he hates how he can see himself in knw, the first scenario not only evens the playing field ("everyone in this world is a murderer") given kdj killed his father (in self defense. unrelated but i have to include this lest i misrepresent him), but further deepens his own guilt and distance from everyone else since even with king of no killing, its- borrowed, in a way. stories becoming reality, and though his actions are lauded by others in the first scenario, undoubtedly he has that guilt while hearing others compliment him on finding a way to get out of the situation without murdering a person. BUT on the FLIP side, this scenario also sets the groundwork for a later forgiveness of himself, his actions being different here establish exactly how far he was driven when he was younger

tbh im just starting my orv reread but this scenario and everything going on with lee sookyung is also so relevant in context of how kdj views himself. it isnt outwardly stated but a large factor- due to kdj's self sacrifice- in their relationship isnt only kdj's denial and his focus on stories, but also kdj's self-hatred. he hates that his mother wrote the book not just for its exposure, but that she has the same self-sacrificual tendency as him- and that it makes it even harder for him to sacrifice himself for her in turn, because he cant do anything to save her now. its a very complex situation and i dont want to oversimplify their relationship- some of the emotions are clearly straightforward. but kdj is a notoriously unreliable narrator with a trend of self hateed, and orv itself is metatextualy implied to be a reconstruction of his pov through his interactions with other characters- his viewpoint colors so much of the story, but he isnt an author. his choice to write his own story has been taken from him, just as lee sookyung chose to write their story before he could- and in doing so, protected and saved him, albeit in different ways.

how many books have been written solely for him? his mother's book, ways of survival, orv- three books written just for him, at least. and like- lee sookyung deserves way more prominence in fanworks tbh because the situation she was in is an unbearable one, and the relationship she has with her son strained at times, but- and this is vitally important- it is complex, and done out of love, and like. so much of orv is about accepting the past, acknowledging it cant be changed, but also helping you come to terms with the ideavthat unfortunate things, malicious things, happen. sometimes situations suck. but in those situations you are still human. you are still full of worth regardless of the actions you have been forced to do, of the ways you have had to survive- but also, to remember to keep choosing to do what you can, and that you have to make that choice.

theres so many fucking layers to this book. i could pick any one topic and write a full research essay on how orv tackles it. genuinely, it is a masterpiece that comments clearly on so many topics- and more besides that i havent even picked up on im sure! and besides what is explicitly written, theres so many layers of implication, of potential interpretation, of cultural weight and literary tie-ins, of symbolism and allegory and constructed metaphors/similes, that for every sentence written there is another five of potential explanation behind them. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[irrealisms]

c!Tommy is annoying (and that’s important)

I have... a lot of feelings about c!Tommy in s2, from the start of the exile conflict through the Green Festival. I also think the fandom tends to mischaracterize him--I know I’m guilty of this, and as a c!Tommy lover I’ll be mostly addressing a thing that I and other people who love his character don’t focus on as much--which makes me sad because the aspects of his character that tend to get glossed over are also some of the ones that are most personally meaningful to me. (rest of the post is /rp, because “c!” gets annoying to type.)

Specifically: Tommy is loud. He’s abrasive. He’s annoying. He threatens, he griefs, he steals. He lies, blatantly, all the time. He tends to be self-centered (despite being deeply selfless). He lashes out at people who are trying to help him.

He is, in short, a bad victim.

And this is precisely what makes him vulnerable. 

Some people on the server were opposed to and sad about exile, sure. But a lot of people? Thought it was funny, that it was natural consequences, that it was deserved. Sapnap came and laughed, Technoblade came and laughed, Lazar came and laughed, Quackity came and laughed. Now, we don’t know what would have happened if Ranboo was the one being isolated and abused; maybe it would be the same. But I don’t think it would have been. A lot of characters have issues with Tommy or simply find him unpleasant to be around, and I would imagine that a significant number of them were probably, on some level, kind of relieved that he wasn’t their problem anymore. To be clear, I don’t entirely blame them for this! Tommy is... a lot, and they (mostly) didn’t know the full extent of what Tommy was going through. Even those of them that tried to visit with good intentions often got their gifts burned and called “pity gifts”, got insulted or yelled at by Tommy, etc.--or in Jack Manifold’s case, actually killed! The first time I watched the leadup to exile arc, I found Tommy difficult to sympathize with at first--he lied to L’Manberg before his trial; he refused to cooperate with probation while he was on it, even though Tubbo was pushing for it as an alternative to exile; at the beginning of exile, he would sometimes log on to visitors, drive them away, and then complain that he was lonely. As much as it’s obviously ultimately Dream’s fault, it’s easy to look at Tommy and not feel much sympathy for his position or feel that it’s partially self-made. It’s easy for outsiders to look at a Tommy who isn’t stealing, isn’t griefing, who is comparatively quieter, who isn’t their problem anymore, and be relieved rather than concerned. 

Exile arc makes it obvious that they’re wrong.

(Incidentally, I have a lot of sympathy for what Dream’s going through in the prison.)

And not only are they wrong, but exile makes the consequences of this painfully, horrifyingly clear: the abuse gets worse, Tommy gets more and more depressed, and at the climax of it all Tommy attempts suicide. 

(Although notably to me, he’s not the stereotypical victim during exile arc, either--he doesn’t cry on stream, he’s still trying to make dumb jokes, he’s not strategic, he refuses to listen to people, he switches wildly between fight and fawn responses without much correlation with who he’s talking to or how he’s being treated.)

Tommy’s recovery arc, after all of this, starts with him stealing valuables from Technoblade, building a secret basement underneath the existing basements, and then loudly asserting that it’s his house and Technoblade is trespassing.

I could talk about how these things are rooted in trauma. I could talk about how his constant eating of golden apples comes after a period of food insecurity, appetite/disordered eating problems, and physical abuse. I could talk about how he’s regained some of his energy after a period of depression but has nowhere to let it out in a small basement room. I could talk about how he repeatedly annoys Technoblade--quite probably the best PVPer on the server--perhaps in part as a test of how far he can go before he gets abused again, and in part as a sign that he feels safe enough to be annoying without being abused.

But that’s... not the heart of it, at least not to me. The heart of it is that before exile, Tommy would have stolen from Technoblade without a second’s thought, and during exile, Tommy didn’t steal from Technoblade because “Dream wouldn’t like it”, and afterwards, he steals from Technoblade again. 

Sure, he’s being annoying. But more importantly, he’s being himself again. Before exile, I might have rolled my eyes, because Technoblade worked for those potions and golden apples and armor and so on, and Tommy’s totally ruining his chest organization system. After exile? I cheered. Tommy’s being Tommy again. And, yeah, that means that he’s being annoying, he’s stealing, he’s ruining dramatic moments. So what? None of that stuff is actually all that bad, in the grand scheme of things. He’s not depressed, he’s not suicidal, he’s not being abused. He’s a teenager and he’s having fun. Technoblade will tease him for it, but he won’t hit Tommy, won’t take his stuff, won’t threaten him, won’t isolate him any further. That’s what a proportionate response to finding Tommy annoying looks like: teasing. 

I’d also like to address one more thing, which... I couldn’t figure out how to fit in the rest of the post, but it felt incomplete without it. Right before the meeting that ends with Tommy pulling out Spirit, Tommy asks everyone what the plan is, and is basically told that the plan is for him to be quiet. He says “you guys, please, for the love of God, you know I’ve watched for this long, I’m not going to be quiet.” He reiterates this throughout the conversation: he can try to be quiet, but it is not, ultimately, as easy for him as “be quiet”. This is also the source of Tubbo’s anger at him-- Tommy can’t do “one simple thing” for him. I’m not claiming Tommy is neurodivergent, but... as a neurodivergent person, Tommy repeatedly saying “I cannot do this thing that is simple for you, I can’t, empirically every time we have tried this in the past it has failed, if you make more plans based on that then they will also fail, have you met me” and having this seen as evidence of me not caring or trying... resonated with me. Which isn’t to say it’s not a flaw--almost all character traits can be flaws in the right (or, well, wrong) situations--but it does show that Tommy has some level of self-awareness about his flaws, which is something I appreciate about him, and it frustrates me when that goes unacknowledged. Tommy knows he’s annoying. He jokes about it. But he can’t actually... turn it off. Whether or not he should (and I would argue that he shouldn’t have to) isn’t even in question: he can’t. This is who he is. The only time we see him less loud and more capable of being obedient is exile, when he’s severely depressed and being abused. That’s fascinating to me, as a character trait!

In my experience, there’s a specific archetype of abuse victims in fiction that is... overrepresented. I can’t quite find the words to talk about it in a way that doesn’t technically include Tommy, but... the ways Tommy is important to me is the ways that (a) he doesn’t fit that archetype (b) not fitting that archetype makes him more vulnerable to abuse. He’s not always easy for other characters to talk to or sympathize with... which makes him uniquely easy to isolate and victim blame. That’s important. I think I tend to downplay Tommy’s annoying tendencies because I want to emphasize his sympathetic traits, and that’s fine, but it’s important to me that... Tommy’s a victim, and he’s annoying. Annoying people can be victims just as much as shy rule-followers can. Not only that: Tommy’s a victim in part because he’s annoying. Him being annoying is a risk factor for abuse, not an excuse for it.

[jojotier]

No One’s Character Is Getting Flanderized

Frankly, to bring up the argument that an author is mischaracterizing their own characters is a hefty one- unlike certain elements of plot and setting, which usually can be fact checked or analyzed as flowing naturally from one event to the next, characterization is something that has a slight element of surprise- the surprise being, characters can act or present themselves in certain ways that don’t make sense until something later on comes up that expands upon the characterization. Generally, authors have their own plans for how a character is going to be that we aren’t privy to- to argue for inconsistent characterization means to prove the disconnect between how a character is before and after a certain point, or if the change is more gradual, why that progression isn’t natural.

The argument seems to be that the progression of Koito’s character in Golden Kamuy is unnatural- that he doesn’t seem to be the same character after a certain point in time.

I would be a little more understanding if the mischaracterization was taken to a great extreme, but that just simply isn’t the case in Golden Kamuy.

This little meta is, of course, in regards to the Karafuto Arc. It could be argued that characters such as Koito and Tsukishima are deviating too heavily from their original portrayal, but the way I see it, to say that is to overlook a fair bit of nuance. 

Perhaps my biggest issue with the initial meta brought up is the idea that two identities cannot exist in the same person simultaneously. There’s an assertion that Koito is incredibly competent in the chapters before Abashiri, but is portrayed as more of a rich, spoiled brat after- and in some ways, that is true! Koito is, as a character, an extremely competent fighter and isn’t at all afraid to do what needs to be done, whether that be murder or fighting on an airship. He’s quick thinking- he finds out the man who’s pretending to be Inodou is an impostor within the span of a few sentences, for instance. After Abashiri, there are a lot of jokes made about his inexperience. 

The fact of the matter is, though, is that someone can be a rich, spoiled brat and still be incredibly competent at the same time. In fact, I’d even say that his competence is still on display, in many ways, during the Karafuto arc, and to ignore them is to reduce his character post-Abashiri down to a joke. Take for instance, the circus arc.

Behold! Incompetence. 

This arc, for all it’s flaws (and I will admit, circus arc was certainly one of the weaker arcs that Noda has put forward so far) also yields some of the best of Koito- before the entire fiasco with the photograph, at least. It even holds one of my favorite Koito lines to date, when he speaks to Sugimoto about his act. 

While it’s true that it might have been easier for Koito to half ass his own performance, and likely damage some of the goodwill he and the others have with the Yamada Troupe, he gives this line instead- and while it may be parsed in a somewhat arrogant way, there’s no denying that Koito has good intentions with this line. He shows a clear understanding that to make an act work, you have to live and breathe it- it’s one of the rules of acting proper. Take it from someone who’s had some experience acting.

During the stenka arc, the story is much the same- while there are moments he looks to others (like when Sugimoto goes absolutely berserk), he’s still fairly useful. He participates in the stenka and fights extremely well, interrogates the owner of the bar effectively and efficiently- and the plot moves forward.

Another little place that looked a lot like “incompetence” in the Karafuto Arc that was played off a bit as a joke was Koito in the lighthouse- namely, he stands in front of the light and Tsukishima warns him that he’ll block out the light. However, it’s that very same flickering that signals to Sugimoto and Tanigaki that the light isn’t from the moon, and helps bring them back. While it’s not stated directly, this seems like quite a deliberate action.

Then, to scale it back to Before Abashiri- Koito is, essentially, still a spoiled brat back then. It’s just that due to his role in the plot at the time, it was supposed to be something that was read between the lines- here’s Koito, the son of a well respected military officer who is able to entrust him directly to Tsurumi. Excelled in the military academy, with a perfectionist streak- likely due to an educated upbringing. Even the mere fact that he has no qualms about warfare or the value of human life is a pretty good indicator that there’s a strong disconnect between himself and most people.

The thing that bothers me most about the idea of Koito being “”radically”” different during the Karafuto arc is because, honestly, Karafuto arc and pre-Abashiri are very different environments. Not only setting-wise, but narratively. 

Pre-Abashiri: The 7th Division has more action scenes and more scenes wherein the members are doing something plot important. Koito has less character building scenes pre-Abashiri than the other members, like Tsukishima and Nikaidou. The setting is, generally, indoors, or in places where Koito expects to be. Tsurumi and Tsukishima act as an anchor of sorts.

Karafuto: While Sugimoto’s gang is searching for Asirpa, there aren’t really as many action scenes. Their biggest enemy appears in the circus arc and stenka, and then from then on out it’s just the elements they have to contend with. Koito doesn’t expect anything, and is severely out of his element. Koito tries to anchor himself first to Sugimoto (”he has a plan, right? right?!?!”) and then to Tsukishima, who is slightly out of his element as well, but not as much as Koito.

In a lot of ways, it’s like comparing apples to crabapples- still fruit, still an apple, but different flavors. Before Abashiri, Koito showed more of his competent side because more scenes allowed him to do so- during Karafuto, his inexperienced side is on display, because being out in the wilderness for an extended period of time isn’t what he’s used to.

It’s said that the different environments and circumstances don’t excuse the shift because other characters treat Koito in a mean-spirited way. While it’s true that they can be a little mean at times, it’s certainly nothing that’s out of place in the manga- just look at the early chapters and how Sugimoto and Asirpa “joke” with Shiraishi. And last I checked, whenever Shiraishi got bit by an animal or did something stupid, he usually also got hit upside the head. A lot of the more “mean-spirited” jokes are directed at the victim only when they do something stupid, or else Koito had done something mean spirited in turn (like making fun of Ogata for being a prostitute’s kid- harsh much?)

So what’s the long-term ramifications for what I’ve discussed thus far?

I believe that Karafuto arc is going a long way towards Koito receiving a character arc. Once he and the rest get to Akou Prison, it’s likely we’ll see Koito getting right back into the fray and fighting with that characteristic skill of his, and as he has more experience in the wilderness the jokes at his expense will be less. It may also go into the fact that Koito depends a little too much on others for guidance- especially Tsurumi- and that he needs to work towards reaching his goals without the crutch of someone else giving him a goal to aspire to. 

More importantly, though, I do believe he’ll become a better person. People just need to take it easy and let Noda’s story flow- whether or not it’s planned beforehand is, honestly, irrelevant. Some writing styles work better with it planned, some work better when there’s character driven interactions driving the plot, and I believe that Noda, at the very least, knows what his plan is for the characters.

It remains to be seen what that means for the story overall.

EDIT: expanded a bit on the point of it being “arrogant”, because it isn’t arrogant to criticize a piece of media- however, I still stand by all my earlier points that Koito’s characterization in the Karafuto Arc is a natural outgrowth from his characterization pre-Abashiri