what’s interesting to me in lost track of time is that it’s not really a revenge story (even though that’s how a lot of people describe it). an ran is betrayed by people she loved in her first life but her second life is dedicated to protecting and preventing her family from falling into the same traps of her first life. she is horrified she is devasted she is enraged but she never actively sets out with revenge in mind on the people who wronged her. she tries to prevent tragedies from happening with the knowledge of her past life and makes sure the people who are involved get their deserved punishment.
the concubine dies as punishment for poisoning her mother and trying to poison her, but as a result the brother she loves loses his mother. her sister loses her dignity and goes insane and while there is no love lost between them, she feels sorry for her state (like her dad said, killing her sister in retaliation would have been less cruel). she uses xiao jing que (and her brother) in her plans for mu ze only to see her put in the same tragic position that an ran was in her first life. and the thing is these, despite manipulation from an ran, these people are all still one way or another active architects of the way their lives turn out and their miserable endings.
even her grand plan in the first arc is to remove her family from the struggle between the royal family (bonus: and then lead a happy life with mucheng and her surviving family) and not about getting revenge on mu ze like i expected it to be ( although, she does partly achieve this). which, to me is sooo compelling bc it poses a rly interesting question: do you punish ppl for their choices and the sins they commit, that TO THEM is, in an unlived, unknown life? like, a lot of the generic revenge based time travel novels and webtoons make a point abt their heroines/heroes going back in time to put in place plans to ruin the people who betray and kill them. it’s simple, easy to digest and provides catharsis for the main characters and readers but i think something this format doesn’t do most of the time is anticipate the idea of free will. it literally traps these characters in their character descriptions and predestined fictional fates. they’re stuck in these stories where they have no choice but to, either, as the protagonist go through trauma that hopefully leads to a happy/satisfying ending where everyone that hurts them suffers OR as the antagonist(s), in the end, pay for the hurt they caused the protagonist (that time loop article that mentioned the never-ending [horror] time loop of characters stuck in a story that have to go through the same fate every time you reread it!!). either way no one is left unscathed and can reach the end without suffering.
lost track of time does this too, in fact, its main theme is that you can’t run away from fate. kind of loosely translating here but in the drama’s own words, “if you block a free flowing body of water it will just find another opening to burst out of” i.e. whatever is meant to happen, will happen (generally used in a more positive, encouraging sense is used in a more tragic sense here actually). the antagonists are given more depth in the second life, they are given space to desire, fail, lament, bathe in regret etc. etc. but none of them are allowed to evolve in a way that changes their ending, none of them magically change their ways, none of them get redemption arcs. every consequence the antagonists face, is a direct and sometimes indirect result of their actions in THIS life. in lost track of time however, an ran does not delight in her “revenge” but neither does she feel guilt in using those ppl for whatever purpose. rather, its the resulting events that affect/haunt her.
and i think that’s a huge part of why lost track of time feels all the more depressing and suffocating. an ran ultimately does not enjoy the catharsis of revenge. it’s necessary (not for personal satisfaction!! but for the bigger picture) but it exhausts her. every time she sees someone who wronged her in her past life suffer a miserable fate, it’s like you can see a part of her wither away. like i said at the beginning, it feels wrong to even call this her revenge. is she angry? yes. but she isn’t consumed by her hatred imo (like the drama even made her say at one point which i don’t agree with btw). she has no choice! like she says, it’s like whatever fictional god of lost track of time is putting her through a divine trial. when she tries to take a step back for happiness, she’s dragged unwillingly right back into the middle of loss and pain. it‘s so fucked up that she’s basically being FORCED to take revenge, but she will also suffer for it (what the fuck. what the fuck lol).
