#webtoon analysis

Dokja actually uses [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] lv.2 a lot more in the novel.

It’s been a hot second since I had a discrepancy-

In the webtoon, Dokja explains pretty much exactly how he and the others survived the first scenario without much prompting other than Joonghyuk’s first question.

[ORV Webtoon, Episode 11]

The discussion is very divided. Dokja speaks and then there’s a sequence of Joonghyuk thinking things through.

Meanwhile, in the novel, Dokja uses the context clues from his ability to figure out the right thing to say.

[ORV Novel, Chapter 11]

It’s more back and forth until the end where Joonghyuk has his fun existential crisis.

I actually like how Dokja is actively using what he hears from other people’s minds to aid his own intentions. It’s like having a play through guide in a dating sim; figuring out what to say to get your desired response. It also makes more sense this way when Dokja’s ability forcibly shuts off due to heavy immersion.

ORV is an amazing ability, as we know, and he’s already used level 1 the way it was intended. This second level isn’t just so he can hear people’s thoughts, but also so that he can orchestrate the reactions he wants.

In Holistic, it seems every seer has a respective stone that aligns with them and improves their ability/abilities. I've been waiting from the moment I saw the yet-to-be-determined red gem(s) that Gareth wears for ANY gem to named dropped and episode 8 finally did (both in the episode itself and the title). That, of course, being;

Jet

Jet being Amber's stone is immediately note worthy, because even though both are considered gemstones; both are mineraloids. Gemstones are largely minerals of some sort, but jet and amber are both fossilized parts of trees (wood and resin respectively). This makes the gems both warmer and softer than most gemstones and are identifying properties that can be used to separate them from others. It forms like coal, being wood that undergoes extensive compression over countless years, and is naturally considered a type of coal. As a material for jewelry, it's been found to be used since the neolithic period. The most famous use was as a mourning accessory by Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert. There's soft (freshwater) and hard (saltwater) variants of jet, but ultimately both are quite soft as far as gemstones go and require great care to maintain. Notably, prolonged water exposure can damage them. When embed in jewelry, it's most typically rounded. Jet can also be carved into sculpted designs like regular wood or jade.

The primary mystical properties of jet are high vibrational energy (tl;dr high good, low bad) and purification. It supposedly brings good luck and protection just by having a piece of jet on your person. The purification portion is two-fold. The first is simply being able to dispel negative energy (bad vibes-be-gone spray). Same as with the luck and protection, you leave it around something/someone with negative energy and it will eventually cleanse them. The second is dispelling residual energy. Secondhand items purportedly hold on to the energy of it's previous owner and leaving a piece of jet near it will eventually cleanse the residual. There are two chakras jet is tied to: the third eye and root. The third eye chakra is, as you may guess, a channeling point for insight and intuition. Seeing what can't be "seen". The root chakra is a grounding point. It's for connecting yourself to reality. In line with this, jet is associated with the element earth and the planet Earth itself. Additionally, it's also associated with the zodiac sign Capricorn and, by proxy, the planet Saturn.

Now how does all this tie into Amber? Well this early on it's hard to make definitive statements. There's just not much to go on since it's clear that we don't really know much of anything about what's going on. There are still somethings to take note of here. First of all, I don't think it's coincidental at all that Amber as the outsider is attributed to a mineraloid instead of a mineral. Most gemstones are a mineral, so she could have very easily ended up with a mineral, but she didn't. I feel as though this is meant to symbolize how ultimately Amber will never truly be one of The Gallery's members. In some way, shape or form, Amber will always be disconnected from the rest of the seers (or at the very least most of them). There's also something to be said about how jet is a kind of coal and as the saying goes "pressure turns coal into diamonds". The reason why Amber is in The Gallery in the first place is because Gareth saw her potential (special shout out to her immediately thinking he can't be trusted and she was 100% correct), wasting away in an untrained seer. Why he brought her there remains to be seen, though. Regardless, obviously Amber will gradually improve over the course of the story and it's more than likely going to primarily because of overcoming adversity. I also think that jet being generally warmer and softer than most gems is meant to be symbolic of Amber generally being a warmer, softer person than most seers. The Gallery's members have already made it clear that there's a disconnect from them and others as well. It very much feels as an every man for himself deal there. I'd wager that's why seers are "a dying breed." Their inability to truly support one another, and in turn be vulnerable to each other, is what I imagine what's been killing them off. I believe Amber being brought into the The Gallery is (intentionally or not on Gareth's part) going to result in The Gallery being "purified". Be that partially or wholly, I don't fully know yet. Although the comic's called Holistic (meaning of/pertaining to the entirety of something), so more than likely Amber's "purification" of The Gallery will affect it in it's entirety. I can't really what's going to be "purified" here, because we really don't know nearly enough about what The Gallery truly is to even begin guessing. All we know is that it's a major place in seer society and there's some type(s) of shady business(es) going on. The last thing I can think of with Amber and jet is that as an outsider to The Gallery; she's more connected to the outside world. She wasn't born into seer society. She does not know it, but she does know the rest of the world. The world at large. I think that's going to another point of separation between her and The Gallery. I don't think she'll ever lose her connection to the outside and that's going to be a reoccurring conflict between her and most seers.

~BONUS RAMBLING IN THE CUT~

I wrote this right after the end of season two and I miss Shiloh so I'm sharing it here~

Background

Chloe grew up in the Remedial district as the daughter of the Warden. She comes from a wealthy, privileged background and had a job in Corrections. This put her in a position of power both because of her job and her family’s connections. When she was born the Oracles named her a “Child of Providence” and it was always assumed that she would one day take over as Warden after her father.

After being promoted to Underwarden she had a mental breakdown and was institutionalized for “a whole season”. At some point during or after this happened she decided to become an officer in Enforcement, leaving her position and her district and falling a station in the process. 

Rookie

We learn early on that Chloe is fairly inexperienced as an Officer. Charlotte was the first dead body she had ever seen, she’d never been to the lower districts, she hasn’t had a partner before and she has a tendency to rush into things without thinking (someone familiar with the dangers of the job wouldn’t do that).

She gets defensive when anyone points out that she’s a rookie (she literally tried to shoot Sawyer when he made fun of her for it). Chloe has a strong need to prove herself that I think ties in with her desire to be the hero. She is a Child of Providence, a Chosen One, “proclaimed by the Oracles to be destined for greatness”. We don’t know the specifics of what “greatness” entails in this case but I don’t think Chloe or anyone else does either. It could be that she thought taking over after her father was her destiny. If so, maybe her mental breakdown had something to do with realizing that that wasn’t it and she had spent her whole life working towards the wrong thing.

Her wanting to be the hero isn’t purely about ego. It’s about understanding herself and doing what everyone has been telling her her whole life and living up to everyones expectations. Leaving her district and station gave her the opportunity to live her life on her terms and still fulfill her destiny. For all we know this was the first time she made a decision that wasn’t dictated by others. 

Chloe’s life as a Civilian was very comfortable and she could have chosen to ignore the injustice around her but she didn’t. She chose to leave that life and she chose to make an effort to change what she perceives as an unjust world. She chose to do all this largely because nobody else is and somebody has to do it. She’s not only tackling the injustice in the criminal system but also the massacre at Perry manor and Azrael’s attack at the Gala. Yes, she did eventually ask for help but she’s the one who first started connecting all the dots and she’s the one who convinced other people that something bigger is going on. 

Her conviction in her beliefs is what drives her. There’s a lot working against Chloe but she doesn’t give up no matter what the world throws at her. 

Does she have trust issues? I don’t think so. She doesn’t trust Hollis because she believes he’s Azrael, and although she didn’t trust Henry and Ainsley to begin with she did eventually warm up to them and confide in them. 

She has a habit of charging into things head first (following Sid into the Sticks, meeting up with Azrael alone, running after Ramsey). I think she gets her courage from a few different places:

her drive to do the right thing: she has seen injustice, she knows how she has benefited from it and wants to fix the problem

her need to prove herself

she has already hit rock bottom (her mental breakdown) and the only way from there is up

naivete and a belief that she is invincible that stems from being young, rich, inexperienced and a Child of Providence

Conviction and tenacity

Chloe has had a sense of justice ever since she was a child, and her conviction in her beliefs is what drives her forward. 

Chloe doesn’t scare easily and she doesn’t back down when threatened. We saw this during her fight with Sawyer, when Azrael came to her house and when the Outcry ambushed the bandits.

And what does she do at the Gala when she finds out that god is (probably) dead and isn’t coming to the rescue? Fucking grabs a broken bottle and gets ready to fight. Go off queen:

Hero complex

There is a big difference between how Chloe sees herself and how the people around her see her. From her perspective, she’s genuinely trying to do her best at fixing an unjust system. Some people see her as arrogant and naive (Hollis), while others see her as a young inexperienced person who lacks direction and guidance (Cliff). 

She is all of these things. She is a hero because she has gone (and is still going) to great lengths to do the right thing at great personal cost. She is naive but she’s not an idiot: she’s just inexperienced. Lastly, she is a bit arrogant for thinking she can fix everything by herself. 

During a conversation with Cliff in episode 31 she tells him that she didn’t like the way things were done in Corrections; she wanted to fix it at the source. Cliff points out the arrogance in that - personally I’d say it’s equal parts arrogance and naivete. Her intentions are admirable but it is arrogant and naive to think that one person alone can change the system, especially someone who only has a surface level understanding of how the system works. 

I’m saying surface level understanding because Chloe grew up in a wealthy, presumably sheltered environment. When she and Cliff chase Sid into the lower districts she mentions that she hasn’t been down there before. This right here is an excellent metaphor for her situation: she has in all likelihood never had to think about station (class) all that much because she’s always been at the top. Her station doesn’t affect her life negatively and therefore she doesn’t need to acknowledge it if she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t know how hard people in power will work to keep the existing systems in place because she’s never challenged the system or been hurt by it. 

In episode 55 she says to Maddox: “I’m a Jacket, just like you.” On paper, sure. But in reality, she isn’t. Although she officially isn’t a Civilian anymore she definitely still has some of the benefits of having been one. Cliff says as much in episode 33: 

Chloe was completely oblivious to how much privilege she had to the point where she didn’t believe she had any at all. 

That said, there are several times throughout the story where Chloe has a wake up call about the world and her place in it: 

her conversation with Sid in the Sticks

realizing the Colony is hiding the truth about demons

at Perry manor when Gideon is dismissive because she isn’t a Civilian anymore

when the Nightwatch ignores obvious inconsistencies at the massacre (“Does the Nightwatch know something I don’t?”)

people repeatedly pointing out that she stands out as a Civilian despite her best efforts (Cliff, Maddox, Shane)

Chloe doesn’t see herself as arrogant and naive. From her point of view she’s genuinely trying to do a good thing and believes so strongly in her ability to achieve it that she’s willing to sacrifice a lot to do it. 

Why, though? Because she has a strong sense of justice and a clear idea of what justice means (at least to begin with, this begins to falter later). She wants to fix things because she needs to, and she wants to be the only hero: 

She didn’t tell Henry and Ainsley about the letter from Azrael despite the fact that they were working on the Perry case together 

In episode 64 she admits to Cliff that she left him in the Sticks because she wanted to be the only one to bring the Marked Man in

She also tried to handle the whole situation with Azrael and the Marked Man by herself, willingly putting herself between a violent criminal and a terrorist organization. 

Relationship with Hollis

In a perfect world their similarities would have made them unstoppable: they would have realized they have a common goal and worked together to achieve it. Instead their commonalities are pushing them apart. 

Chloe and Hollis are two sides of the same thing:

Both want to change the system, they just have different understandings of what that entails: Chloe thinks that the way forward is to change things at the ground level, Hollis thinks power will be the solution to all his problems. 

Both are rejecting the thing the other wants: Chloe didn’t want the life of a Civilian, Hollis thinks he is powerless where he stands. 

Both think that they have the solution to what they perceive as the problem and that they alone can fix it. 

All this combined with Chloe not liking being told what to do and Hollis not liking his authority being questioned was bound to lead to conflict. 

They both feel like they don’t get taken seriously and they hate it. Chloe felt pandered to as a Civilian and Hollis feels ignored as a Jacket:

One of the things that drives Hollis nuts about Chloe is that she doesn’t get it. During their argument at his house in episode 100 he says “You don’t know what you’re TALKING about, You’re so FUCKING CONFIDENT and you’re always WRONG. YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING.” 

This was probably the worst possible way he could have brought this up but he has a point. In a nutshell, this is Chloe’s whole problem. She has the will and determination to achieve her goals, but not the experience and help from others she needs. 

Hollis’ problem, however, is that he doesn’t see Chloe’s potential for growth. He’s blinded by his prejudice against people in power: the Civilians who have held him in their grasp his whole life. Of course, it doesn’t help that Chloe has been dismissive towards him almost as long as they have known each other - further fueling Hollis’ hatred of Civilians. When they first spoke in the Sticks, from his POV it seemed like she had good intentions and that they were going to get along. Instead, she wound up confirming his prejudices. 

Relationship with Cliff

Although they had a rough start Cliff eventually became the only person who has Chloe’s back no matter what (he’s her……rock. get it because cliffs are rocks and that’s his name ok I’m done now). 

Before she had Cliff to support her Chloe ran after a suspect into the Sticks without backup, decided to fight an armed wanted murderer by herself (unarmed, no less) and followed the bandits into the Outcry ambush alone. 

Having him to steer her in the right direction when she needs it has been good for her.

Growth

Chloe has definitely been affected by the things that have happened to her. Cliff’s near death experience forced her to address her reckless habits; Charlotte’s death, the massacre, Elijah’s execution and Shane’s death confronted her with the severity of the situation and showed her that this isn’t going to be easy. 

She has made mistakes but when she does she does she learns from it. 

Conclusion

Yes. After this ask, i've read it, anon.

First at least 30-40 chapters was like full of pain because mc was going through one trouble to another and noone would believe her, blame her for being the 'victim' and she would act like everything is okay. It was extremely relatable and painfull to read. While i find her really relatable, i also find it very unrealistic that she never become 'unstable' in that kind of sitution other than having eating disorder etc. Because noone would be able to act 'perfectly' and then stay 'stable'. Yes, she isnt okay but story doesnt show it in a 'insane level'. Though, i still the enjoy the story.

Love part happenned too quick and wasnt developed enough in my opinion. ML only has a chance to see her pain and her hiding it with smile, i wish they start developing relationship after she reached her breaking point. I wish love, relationship really started at that point. But even before that, despite feeling very insecure, she seems to fall for him. While it is realistic for abuse victims to fall for 'cold, rude' guys and all, i wish we get more details in this part. Other than everything is going too smoothly.

And again, i undertand ML has trauma and war soldier or something but he is very violent, guy has serious anger issues. And i dont like the fact that he would prefer her over everyone, literally his friends. He doesnt even know her enough to go this far, also i dont find when characters constantly say 'romantic partners' comes first over everyone. Like, i get it if he put her first but i hate he esiealy disgard his friends and others. And him always trying to protect her too is cliche. And i hate when everyone suddeny love mc just because 'she is pure and angelic, she had the most painfull experience, omg noone is like her' type of treatment, its too unrealistic and it happens in webtoons a lot. I wish it was a lot more realistic than this.

Just binged the first part of Hand Jumper on Webtoon and I'm obsessed with how it manages to be so engaging while also following a pretty standard shonen battle anime formula. Personally, I think a lot of it boils down to the main character being really interesting, and by interesting I mean "makes interesting and deliberate choices when confronted with the two opposing ideologies of the story". 

For example our character is the standard outcast main character archetype in shonen fiction, but her living most of her life “by the book” collides with this part of her character. So, when given the choice of whether to investigate the warehouse, she has equal reasons for and against (it could be dangerous vs I could find out what my sister wanted me to see). She ends up making the decision to enter the warehouse, but her reasoning is not what the audience would expect (figure out more about my sister). Instead her reasoning is that she shouldn’t worry about consequences because her life is already completely derailed. This surprises us and also makes us question what we know about the character: “Would this really be the response of someone who was a true honor student? Does this indicate he past might be more troubled than we’ve been told? Or perhaps its because she was so invested being an honor student that she’s been so crushed by becoming an Aberrant?”. And with that, the author has constructed an interesting decision for the character! 

This image just doesn’t exist in the novel:

[ORV Webtoon, Episode 8]

Which it makes sense. This is an image to visualize for the audience what’s happening.

I’d like to point out what we can get from this image since it isn’t in the novel. What information can we get that we don’t get in the novel?

Well first, this is our first visualization of the main four constellations that follow Dokja. Literally in the next panels we get better visualizations, but this is the first time we see them.

I’d like to point out that three out of the four characters are simply pushing the coin forward (ABFD doesn’t really have a choice because he doesn’t have opposable thumbs but ima ignore that). It’s a similar motion to betting at a table. They’re just pushing it forward and there would be little contact with the actual constellation.

Sun Wukong is different. He’s holding it as if offering a coin to a person. It’s a more personal exchange than the other constellations. I just think it’s a fascinating design choice. It sets him as different than the others.

Moving on to what the streaming panel actually says. Here’s a zoomed in image of it:

So what’s interesting?

Well, for one, it shows that this really is like a twitch chat. There’s a chat that the incarnations aren’t seeing or they can spend coins to send an indirect message to the incarnations.

Another thing is the timestamps. Where Dokja is, it’s around 7 PM. Maybe 8 at this point. But the timestamps for the constellations is 1 PM. That implies that not only their time is different, but also they probably have a universal time that they use rather than time zones.

Interestingly, this image says that Uriel’s moniker is “Demon-Like Judge of Fire” which is the same as the novel. But in episode 8 (I don’t know about the rest of the webtoon. I’m too lazy to check that right now), she’s referred to as Demonic Judge of Fire. Same thing, it’s just interesting that there’s an inconsistency there.

And finally, the playback options. Constellations can pause, change the volume, and what looks like an option to fast forward. I think that’s interesting because you would assume they would replay things, not fast forward.

The time it takes the ichthyosaur to secrete acid is different.

“But OP it’s probably just a translation error”” “OP I thought you said you’d stop focusing on these-“

Shush. This one is a big deal.

In the webtoon, the time Dokja says for an ichthyosaur to produce acid after ingestion is 3 minutes.

[ORV Webtoon, Episode 13]

(Also the spelling of ichthyosaur is different but who cares. It’s a hard word to spell either way)

In the novel, it’s 3 HOURS.

[ORV Novel, Chapter 12]

That’s a huge difference! Think about everything that takes place between the time Dokja gets thrown into the ichthyosaur.

He bargains with Bihyung, gets a contract made, buys shit off the Dokkaebi Bag, and prepares himself. Go look at how long that sequence is. He can’t do all that in 3 minutes!

We make take 3 minutes to read it, but Dokja is not getting all that shit done in the time it takes for me to listen to a pop song. I don’t care how good he is at what he does, he can’t possibly do that.

This is left out of the webtoon:

[ORV Novel, Chapter 3]

This is right after Bihyung’s hierarchy of needs where he is boasting about how mortals live their lives for free.

Dokja obviously has thoughts about that.

Does it mean anything that it was left out? No. It’s just the webtoon having to cut certain things out for various reasons.

This paragraph doesn’t really add much in the overall scheme of things. It just shows how Dokja feels about Bihyung’s assumption of living life for free.

I personally think this adds to the idea of Dokja saying he lives a Dokja’s life and what I discussed in Discrepancy #5. To summarize, we all know “a Dokja’s life” basically means he’s living the life of a solitary person/reader. In Discrepancy #5, I mention the differences between him saying “non-fiction” vs “realism.”

By including what Dokja thinks about Bihyung’s assumption of a free life, it further solidifies the idea that Dokja is working class. His life is basically defined by being a nobody working class reader.

It gives off the same vibes as a pretentious idiot saying that someone has something easy. Dokja is mad that Bihyung is basically devaluing the suffering people like him has to go through to survive. It’s a difference in perspectives.

To Bihyung, they do have life easy. They aren’t fighting for their lives for the entertainment of gods.

To Dokja, his life (and basically everyone’s lives) are hard and their work has to mean something.