Do You Hear That? No Nightingales

And the act of constellations/outer gods giving their plausibility support willingly so that a certain character can create the story he wants is like they saying: Oh I WISH to see this version of his so much more than I care about how this story WAS USED TO BE TOLD.

So, the plausibility is a scale that tilts under the combined influence of storytelling convention, popular tropes at a certain point of time, and the power of readers’ WISH.

Come to think of it, this is how stories change and evolve in our world, too. How the authors took this rule of storytelling and made it into the foundation rule of the new world that was Star Stream just like gravity in our physical world was the first few things that made me fall in love with ORV.

Lee Sookyung is actually my favorite female character in ORV Main Story. Tbh, I never expected that.

As a principal, I usually avoided mother-children dynamic stories because imo it was impossible for it to be handled without annoying me in some way. So, when I first saw LSK introduced as Kim Dokja’s mother along with their past shadow, I was so prepared to dislike that arc. I expected it to be one-dimensional and with some absolute value-driven messages such as: children have to forgive their mother or imperfect mothers are just plain evil.

Yet, it proved me wrong. I really liked how the dynamic played out, especially because it was far from perfect and without clean cut reconciliation.

I don’t think KDJ forgave her nor he wanted to. I don’t think forgiveness was what LSK wanted, either. I think their dynamic had nothing to do with forgiveness. Their reconciliation was also very vague.

Sometimes relationships don’t need reconciliations.

Sometimes finding a temporary, tolerable way to co-exist and acknowledge the other’s existence without too much pain is more than enough. (And there was love in it….)

Sometimes reconciliation is not necessary because both are not their past selves who needed it the most anymore.

(Just like 28 years old KDJ couldn’t forgive his school bully in 15 years old’s KDJ's stead. Because the one who needed the apology was not there anymore.)

That is sad and that hurts but that is also true and a realistic way to portray humans. And I appreciate that.

LSK’s attempt to save her son from the prophet failed and backfired so bad because he was not the son she knew and had given up everything to protect anymore. She knew nothing about his stories. The ones he valued more than anything were stories he was going to create with his companions. (And her protection was in the way….)

Similarly, KDJ’s attempt to save his mother by putting her stories back together failed and it sent him into a panic. Suddenly he realized that he knew nothing about her anymore. (And to hate someone askes for a certain degree of certainty, illusions or not, that we do know our target just like the back of our hand) but what he had been loving/hating was just a part of her stories. Other crucial ones that defined her being were those she gained during and after her time in jail. With those women who might endure similar struggles as she did.

I love that LSK’s existence was bigger than her identity as a mother. I love that she failed to save her son as the mother he needed but she saved others as a leader, and each point had their place in the story, and each point didn’t cancel the other.

I love that she and KDJ shared so many parallels. There were already many posts writing about it. (I just want to add a tiny point that she also adapted unexpectedly well in the new world and I don’t think that was just because she had heard the novel from her son. They actually shared similar reasons why. imo.)

I also love and want to point out that, LSK shared parallels with Han Sooyoung, too.

Both were authors. Both throwing their lives into CONTROLLING the narrative as how they wanted it, so aggressively that it became a weapon that harmed people. (Ah, I do have a soft spot for women who were narrative control freaks….)

And they both did it praying a certain person could survive.

One author made the narrative for that just one person to read at the risk of the destruction of all the other people. He did live. And others’ lives did get ruined.

Tragically, the other author made the narrative for everyone, except that one person, to read and ended up ruined his life, too. But, he also lived.

No, I don't think LSK wanted KDJ's forgiveness. I think she wanted him to live. And she would do anything terrible to protect him. The most tragic part was that her protection was in the past "not enough” and “in the wrong way" and then later "not needed anymore" even when she offered all her blood and tears into it.

Still she was a failed mother.