I am reading The Player Hides His Past again but this time purely through the novel, unlike a year or two ago where I read the manhwa. First off, very very different impressions!!!!! This is typical for manhwa adaptations but the difference was starker than I thought it would be.
The main difference is how, when reading the manhwa, it feels like Granfel is possessing Lee Ho-yeol's body. Because the visual representation of Lee Ho-yeol as a second person, a ghost, someone that looks like he's just observing. But in the novel, that feeling is more subtle. At some point, it feels less like LHY is being forced to do things but making a decision based on different factors, including how Granfel would feel about it.
Because it doesn't feel like LHY is being possessed by someone else with no choice in his decisions, naturally that gives his choices weight. He's not being dragged around- he has a compulsion to do things based on his heavy pride, and he must make the optimal choice to survive in spite of it.
A common thing that he says is that he is "always struggling to not sink under the weight of that pride". To survive, he literally has to prepare in advance for those situations where he will have no choice but to face a deadly situation head on, because on that pride. It gives his character so much depth and things just don't feel like a comedy, because we know that LHY has to walk into danger with his own two legs and only the preparation he did in advance.
This isn't dissing the manhwa!!! There are obviously going to be aspects of the novel that are lost, decisions made that aren't for the best, and the complexity of transforming words into visuals. One thing that I like about the manhwa is how LHY appears to literally be hiding behind Granfel. Even in the novel, in the beginning LHY uses Granfel's personality as a method of hiding his fear and apprehension at the attention and danger he is subjected to, but it isn't as clear as it is in the manhwa.
I'll also need to reread the manhwa to make a full comparison between them because it's been so long, but I'm really enjoying the seriousness that can be felt from LHY!!!! Especially as I keep reading and he settles into Granfel's pride, fully accepting the responsibility it comes with, despite how daunting it is.
Anyway all that to say that the culmination of all of that, where LHY completely accepts Granfell's pride and responsibility as his own, leads to this thought process:
Just because you can come back to life doesn't mean you should immediately resort to repeatedly killing yourself in battle!!!!!
