My Life as an Internet Novel - Ch. 57

Dex-chan lover
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Mar 14, 2019
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709
Am I the only one rooting for Ruda, the outsider. When I think about it, he's the only one that Dan-I has been honest with from the beginning. It's just sad that Dan-I thinks Ruda is a girl! 😭
 
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Apr 14, 2020
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35
You know, I really don't get why manga and manhwa alike do this.

I am talking, of course, about the shipping war that's been going back and forth in the comments for 57 chapters, and how
Mr. McSilverhair
is the final love interest. Because honestly, the way everything up to this point has been drawn and written, it makes absolutely no sense.

Bluehair McGee
just fits in a way none of the other potential love interests do - he's
had more screen time, had the most in depth and personal discussions AND just been drawn in such a way as to appear the central dude.
The only person who even comes close is
Ms. Original Protagonist
, and maaaaaybe
Newkid McBlondie
, and sure - I can accept that with the context of future chapters, this will all make more sense.

But why write it like this in the first place? It just feels bizarre.

Anyway, random petpeeve rant over, this story is great and I'm always happy to see new chapters of it. Even if the spoilers I've seen do puzzle me a bit. 😅
 
Joined
Mar 22, 2019
Messages
377
Idk why i don't like Dani as FL, i love Yeo Ryeong more....
People said silver haired guy is the ML, but he has no vibe as ML at all, small focus so far it's actually a huge surprise, does the author simply want to make shock effect for picking Jiho as ML or what, i really don't feel the chemistry between Jiho & Dani

meanwhile the Blue haired guy drawn more seriously and have this "yo im ML" vibe, idk why this guy isn't picked. Considering he's the most active among 4 to Dani
 
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Feb 9, 2020
Messages
194
Thank you for the chapters! I really enjoy this! it's a cool story! I just need more interaction between Jiho and Dan-i to actually see if they have chemistry or whatsoever. my top pick for dan-i potential love interest is chunyoung (from the story so far you could really see their chemistry.) Then Ruda cause she can open to him so easily. Third is eunyung I mean the nice dude act from him always drop whenever it involves dan-i(although it seems like a little sister and older brother type of troupe) , and then the smart dude shit I forgot his name, that dude try his best to remember ham dan i and make all those notes (dude the effort) for her is definitely worth to be a male lead. I don't think I could ship him from Jiho yet, since from the story so far their relationships just really seems to be not progressing. But I did read that this is just 1/3 of the story so I'm hoping for more plot!!!
 
Active member
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Jul 28, 2018
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165
@georgetorres1802 Lol 1/3. We're not even 1/5 of the way through yet. The manhwa's barely scratched the surface of the novel. It's a long ride that's not ending anytime soon so there's a lot of time for things to develop.

@Meridian_Prime and others: "But why write it like this in the first place?"

I won't speak for other series, but in this case, I feel it's a reflection of the lesson being taught to Dani (and by extension, the readers) in the story.

People are either forgetting or not realizing one of the important themes of this story -- the title is Inso's Law, otherwise known as The Law of Web Novels. Throughout the story, Dani recites many of these "laws" -- essentially tropes that she's seen in her years of reading web novels. Her familiarity with them makes her quite genre savvy and it makes Dani believe she's got things all figured out from the start -- but she doesn't.

A good chunk of the story is about having Dani realize that although she's interacting with fictional characters, she shouldn't be applying these "laws" to them as if their futures are already written. She thinks she knows how things are going to end and she treats these tropes as absolute, like they're rules that will never be broken. This dogma of hers is a key part of why she's unable to accept that her friends genuinely care for her. She needs to stop thinking of the world as a scripted novel and treat it more like its own living world. Accepting that is an important part of Dani's development.

Also, it's kind of meta. Dani is our viewpoint character most of the time and we're subject to her biases. Readers are guilty of doing the same thing as Dani without realizing it. We want Dani to stop applying all these situational tropes to her friends and instead see them as real people who act free from the shackles of their writing, yet at the same time, we'll also use examples of these tropes as reasoning for the outcomes we expect or want to see. The irony.

Let's use my favourite example: the arguments that fall under the umbrella of the "First Guy Wins" trope. Chunyoung is the first guy Dani (and the audience) meets; he gets the most prominence early on; the backstory of how Dani became friends with him is revealed first and given the most significance; the classic "I like you because you have no interest in me"/"wow I'm glad I don't like him" push-and-pull you see at the beginning... I could go on. "He just feels like the ML," we say. Based on what, though. Based on what we know about conventional writing. We have this well-formed idea of what a male lead should be like from our experiences reading about them and they tend to follow a formula more often than not.

This isn't very different from how Dani thinks Jiho is the male lead destined for Yeoryeong just because her first impression of him was an arrogant chaebol heir (a common archetype for male leads) that talked to Yeoryeong first, challenged her, and ends up bickering with her a lot. Because those things definitely mean they're destined to be together forever, right?

It's just an intuitive guess based on Dani's familiarity with tropes and since we see things through Dani's eyes, readers get caught up in her biases. People eat up the idea that Jiho is Yeoryeong's male lead. By trope law, Dani should by all means end up with Chunyoung and Yeoryeong with Jiho because those were their first interactions with the 4HKs respectively. ...But that's not what happens.

Jiho doesn't really fit the conventional mould or introduction of a male lead in this genre. He doesn't meet Dani first, doesn't have an overwhelming presence at the beginning, and he doesn't really get into these dick measuring contests over Dani that Chunyoung and Ruda do at times, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get any development or build-up as a LI for Dani -- because he does, and lots of it (no one gets put through the angsty pining wringer for her more than Jiho). I'm tired of seeing everyone talk about Jiho like he's a third rate love interest or the "wrong"/worst/most nonsensical/most undeserving choice if only because at the beginning he's "only" showing subtle care and attention to her wellbeing and happiness instead of getting into cock fights about who knows Dani better but I digress.

The story has Dani -- and by extension, the readers -- realize that she can't apply these tropes to the characters and think she's got everything figured out. She's not some semi-omniscient foreseer who knows how it all ends. That she thinks Jiho (or anyone else) can't like her at all means she still thinks of him like he's a scripted character without a will of his own; he's supposed to be the male lead of the novel she's in; he's supposed to like Yeoryeong; he's not allowed to like Dani because it breaks the rules and laws she's established in her head, but it's those types of thoughts that prevent her from seeing her friends as real people and, in some cases, it really hurts them.
 
Fed-Kun's army
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Oct 1, 2019
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607
@sardonic My god, this is an amazing analysis!!
I used to be a Chunyoung shipper but switched over to Jiho once I found out they were endgame because there are so many tender Jiho moments and also cos he’s such a big fucken TSUN ugh I love their comfortable friendly dynamic
You pointed out so many things that I wouldn’t ever have thought of lmao and just Big Thanks bc I really love how perfectly you broke everything down.
 
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Sep 16, 2019
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@sardonic wow I hope this doesn’t sound weird but I wish I could read novels and manwhas with someone like you in real life. I love the analysis you made and I totally agree with you. This story is so big brain, and every chapter I always get amazed.
 
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Jul 28, 2018
Messages
165
@NightQueen It's a fun series to re-read. I find I end up noticing hints and foreshadowing the author dropped but didn't fully grasp the significance of the first time.

@frenchfry
YES. I love their comfy banter. He is SO tsun but I'm glad he's also not afraid to show he cares. I love how Jiho can relentlessly tease Dani but also have soft moments where we see how patient and understanding he is with her. He doesn't push Dani to do things she doesn't wanna do because he knows it only makes her close herself off more. Jiho's feelings for Dani make me weak. He's so sweet on her.
 

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