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Trauma in Solo leveling

Always haunted by what could have been of Solo Leveling if the narrative acknowledged the inherent trauma vision that guides most of Jin-Woo's actions through the series instead of glorifying him for that.

Like, it is pretty clear to me from the start that a lot of his obsession with self reliance and his increasingly cynical views of the world ("The weak are destined to be betrayed") are a direct response to the double dungeon incident, and in more ways than we initially realize.

I think it's particularly obvious in the way he is paralled with Lee Joohee; while they're both shown to be traumatized from their encounter, Joohee is supposedly 'worse off' than him. She has noticeable flashbacks to that episode and withdraws from life and work in an attempt to avoid possible triggers - becoming paralysed when she fails to do so. And because, while also afraid, Jin-Woo is instead making a point to return to dungeons we are very clearly meant to think that he is moving on when she is not. ...Except that he isn't.

Because, you see, along with withdrawing, the reenactment of a traumatic event is also a very common response to trauma. And so is the risky behaviour that might come with it. And what does Jin-Woo does as soon as he's able to leave the hospital again? Immediately throw himself into dungeons, alone, with a clear disregard for personal safety and an extreme need to both prove himself and give meaning to his near death experience before.

Not only does he goes right back into the very same place his trauma took place, but he seems to subconsciously be trying to recreate said event in a way that gives him control of the situation. This time, he wasn't abandoned to die alone in a dungeon: he did it himself, willingly. He placed himself in that position. And later on, when he risks himself with shady parties he expects to betray him, he seems almost content; once again putting himself in risk by creating a scenario where he is 'abandoned' and 'betrayed' but where he can come off on top. He is desperate to both have his belief confirmed that someone perceived as a weak hunter like he is will always be betrayed, always be left behind, and to fight that supposed fate. To prove that he has 'fixed' this aspect of himself and will thus not fall victim to that consequences of that abandoment again. In fact, he is so detatched from the current scene that he deliberately ignores the fact Yoo Jinho challenges those believes by protecting Jin-Woo, whom he believes to be an E rank at that point.

And were this any other story, all his development from then on would prove the faults of this mindset. The dangers of self reliance, of cutting yourself off from any support network, from depriving himself of any sort of meaningful trust or vulnerability with others. But instead, we're meant to respect the fact he is increasingly isolated from everyone else. That he becomes cold, emotionally withdrawn and paranoid (his refusal to join any of the existing guilds always felt to me like his need for control taken to extreme, plus the fact he could not deal with how exposed he felt working with others again). And I think that's really sad.

It would have been really interesting to have a story that is willing to challenge the notion that he is better off alone, and that trust in others is ultimately unecessary. And that would acknowledged the strength necessary to allow himself to trust and be vulnerable after everything - and the importance of surrounding himself with people he loves and knows will protect him too. Sad 😔

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ceiling fan demo steve

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inspired by this

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I have run out of Sung Jinwoo/Woo Jinchul fics to consume. :(

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you know what screw canon I literally want to see Kamish being a legit part of Jinwoo’s army and being annoyed boomer grandpa they need (also mentor figure for Kaisel let’s gooooo)

but plz everyone are so noisy he just naps in jinchul’s shadow without him even knowing so (simply because when kamish was so done jinwoo happened to chat with jinchul whose shadow was closest) and he kinda stayed here

also excuse me kamish can shrink to tiny cuddly thing and I just want tired jinchul come home and turn only to see a mini humanity’s calamity casually napping on his coach poor man legit has to hit his head on door to see if he’s hallucinating or no

also jinchul and kamish friendship lets go

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Liu Zhigang has so much potential as a potential foil to Jinwoo because in a way they are really similar. Jinwoo is like GremlinEnergy TM meanwhile Zhigang is just BastardEnergyTM except with people they respect or look up to or just care about.

Both of them fuck with people and act like they have no idea what they did albeit in different ways.

They also really appreciate straightforwardness and just prefer to get straight to the point with general conversations.

Stating all this, I'm thinking of Jinwoo/Jinchul/Zhigang poly ship where Woo Jinchul gets bombarded with Jinchul-hyung and Jinchul-gege on the daily whenever either of these hunters cause a mess. They weedle their way into his good graces by doing him "favors" and helping him put his life on a good work/life balance.

Afterwards, Jinchul's just fond and exasperated whenever he finds homecooked food in the fridge or a clean up of the documents in his apartment because he knows who is going to be responsible for his paperwork next week.

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SLCursedMeme01

Reference:

Source if yall want to use.

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I wanna see Woo Jinchul handle Gojo. Who will win? The world's strongest jujutsu sorcerer or the A ranked hunter who knows how to handle S ranked hunters with egos bigger than their skills.

Then it brings into question why Woo Jinchul is even in Japan in the first place...

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The demon is hungry

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Admittedly, I have some fondness for Kang Taeshik. He is interesting and it's kinda sad to see him go so fast.

Sometimes, I wonder how fascinating it would have been if he and Jinchul have built some sort of real partnership. Jinchul is Taeshik's Morality Pet/Compass. Taeshik is Jinchul's second "special case" (Jinwoo is the first) - he wants to protect the Hunter from his own violent impulses.

They are partners at work. Jinchul allows Taeshik to "hunt" aka do extra judicial killings in the dungeons and even covers for him. Taeshik runs all his "hunts" through Jinchul first and even avoids civilian deaths as much as possible.

Then the ill fated mission with Jinwoo happens.

Hmm... Maybe I can make this even more twisted if Taeshik is aware of Jinwoo's value towards Jinchul. Then he uses that knowledge to drag down Jinchul to his level on hunting people as well.

Just basically:

Jinchul towards Taeshik: I can fix him.

Taeshik towards Jinchul: I can ruin him.

Extra:

Jinwoo: What the fuck is going on? Are they murder husbands or not? Wait, Chief Woo is my what? Do I need to save him or something?

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various headcanons that i forgot aren't actually canon

just the koreans cause if i did everyone at once, we would be here forever

Jongin and Yoonho were both part of the Fiend Guild, and that's where their rivalry started, by competing for vice guildmaster

Jongin rescued a cat from Jeju during their first raid and smuggled her back in his cape. Her name is Kiwi. He had to get a new cape because she uses his old one to sleep

Byungyu and Yoonho are childhood friends. Byungyu would always defend Yoonho, because he was so much of a softie and a crybaby as a kid

Yoonho has like. A bajillion animals at home. At some point when he's walking his dogs during a hot summer, he goes topless, and the picture reaches the papers so fast. It gets brought up in almost every single argument with Jongin

Taegyu will eat sour candy until his mouth bleeds and it sends Byungyu insane

Eunseok was an S rank assassin part of the Fame Guild, and was best friends with Byungyu and Haein

Haein was first vice of the Fame Guild before Jongin created the Hunter's Guild and stole her (he promised her no paperwork if she joined, and she was sold)

Hwang Dongsu used to be part of the Knights Guild. He joined, thinking as an S ranker he would immediately become the guild leader. When that didn't happen, he began searching overseas, where Thomas Andre ran into him and picked him up

Byungyu felt too guilty to dedicate himself to one guild, and so he freelances for a high price, so this way he can help more people instead of being tied down. It made it easier to retire, too. The running joke is that he wants to join the Hunters Association

Taegyu and Dongwook had a healthy rivalry between the Fiend and Fame guild. They don't know where Jongin and Yoonho learned to be rivals like that

The Fiend Guild used to be no. 1 until Jongin rose to the top by recruiting Haein and gathering a lot of attention by being a guild leader as a mage

Taegyu and Jongin still talk often. Jongin always makes fun of Taegyu for being ancient and forgotten and Taegyu calls him an arrogant brat. They would die for one another

Just before he became no. 1, Jongin had a really bad fight with Hwang Dongsu. It wasn't unusual, because most other S rankers despise him, since he was blatantly power hungry and bloodthirsty. Because Jongin lost, he ended up leaving Taegyu and the Fiend Guild and created his own guild in an attempt to prove his strength

Jongin despises Yoonho for hiring Hwang Dongsu's brother, Dongsuk, because he still holds a grudge

Jinchul doesn't like Taegyu very much, because he kept trying to bribe him to join the Fiend Guild. They're ok now, especially now that the Fiend Guild isn't no. 1, but Jinchul avoids Taegyu still

Go Gunhee used to pretend actually entertaining the idea of letting Jinchul join a guild until Jinchul told him it was causing problems on his end (Thomas got sad Gunhee said no and Jinchul was terrified that sadness would turn to anger)

During the holidays, Yoonho always takes his dogs and one cat back home with him. Byungyu also goes, so it's become a sort of yearly roadtrip for them. Yoonho usually asks Taegyu or Haein to pet-sit the rest of his animals while he's away

Haein likes fast food restaurants. Neither Jongin nor Dongwook understand why, but she drags them there all the same

Jinchul appreciates Byungyu and Haein, since they always mediate Yoonho and Jongin whenever he isn't around to stop them. It doesn't always work, but at least they tried

Haein doesn't know Jinchul is the origin for her nickname, The Dancer, because he was creating her hunter profile and was mesmerized by the way she fought. He mentioned it to Go Gunhee, and it kinda spiraled from there

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Reading Woo Jin-chul's dossier from the Arise game and wished we got more from him in the main story.

He saw Sung Il-Hwan's ill fated mission at the amusement park. He watched as Jin-woo's grief got broadcasted on TV.

Omfg. The Sungs were Jin-chul's reason to help Hunters instead of becoming a police officer.

-> Jin-chul minding his own business in college and working hard to be part of the police force.

-> Saw Jin-woo sad on TV and went "Oh crap. Who's going to help and protect Hunters?"

-> Heard about Go Gun-hee setting up the Korean Hunters Association and promptly dropped from the police academy (I assume) to pursue business

-> Was Awakened and went fuck it with his business studies to go fight in the field instead

-> Eventually applied to KHA optimistically

LMAO. No wonder Jin-chul's really good at his job as Gun-hee's right hand man. His educational background and police training made him perfect for it.

It's also really sweet how before he Awakened, he was already aiming to help KHA. However, while I like the retcon of connecting him somewhat to the Sungs, it kind of made a bit of a plot hole for me.

I mean, wouldn't it make sense for Jin-chul to try to keep tabs/following up on Il-Hwan's family especially Jin-woo since they are technically his inspiration for switching careers? Or at least maybe recognizing Jin-woo immediately in their first meeting?

Anyway, it's hilarious how he reacted at being Awakened. Jin-chul annoyed at his wasted years of pursuing a business degree just to fall back on his police training as a fighter. He must be so stressed when after signing up to the KHA, he looped back to using his business education to battle paperwork and wrangle agents and high ranking Hunters as well.

The ending for his Story Chapter 2 sounded ominous tho:

"But dreams never really come true. He would learn that the hard way."

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demo Steve head concepts. I thought a lot about his mouth and how it can expand, especially keeping him low profile

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thinking about the 'rockstar eddie x normal guy steve who knows nothing about the band' trope and how fun it would be to flip on its head. eddie the cringy dork-ass super fan who's been secretly obsessed with pop sensation steve harrington since his debut album dropped when they were both 14. eddie the small-town nobody who blows his summer savings on a fan expo ticket just to get steve's autograph, who gets a little too high before said expo and winds up going viral on tiktok for an improv guitar solo he plays at the event, and who suddenly finds himself selling out arenas and getting invited to award shows and being seated right next to his long-time celebrity crush. loser to lovers, modern au, 21k

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Last day to reblog this, it's the same year as yesterday, 2024.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Past Tense, Pt. 1"

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Younger writers. Please, just know that you could not skip to different songs on a cassette tape, that’s CDs. With tapes you pressed fast forward or rewind and prayed.

Also, VHS tapes did not have menu screens. Your only options were play, fast forward, rewind, pause, stop, or eject.

Y’all are making me feel like the crypt keeper here, I’m begging you 😭

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I love both Dean and Sam, just in very different ways.

Dean is babygirl (derogatory). I want all the pain and suffering upon him. Anything that can go wrong shall go wrong for him, until the world ends and I hold him gently in my arms for him to finally feel the love and peace he deserves.

Sam is babygirl (positive). If you touch even a hair on his head, I will skin you alive. He deserves more than the series has given him. He deserves love for being born and nothing less.

They're not the same. :)