u/butterpecannnnn

The mythology is overpowering and it was never essential to Hand Jumper's thesis in the first place. If you're not a fastpass reader, you might not agree. I initially thought that the godlings would be a great way to explore Sayeon's own god complex, but it's shaping up to be just a world-building construct in a world that is already built enough.

I think HJ is trying to use godlings to talk about what the value of "humanity" really is and why perfect beings still desire the imperfections of humanity. However, you don't need to borrow the idea of selling your soul to the devil to do this.

HJ has already done it in a much more unique and natural way: through Sayeon, who has already lost a lot of her humanity in her quest for perfection after being given the power to achieve it (time reversal). For example, she rewinds just to have a perfect conversation, only to discover that she's lost the whole point of having a conversation (building genuine connections) and further isolating herself from the people around her.

HJ's beating heart is an exploration of ambiguity in morality, on a personal level with Sayeon's psychological collapse and ability to rewind time, and on a bigger scale with the idea that the oppressed class is manipulated to be complicit in social institutions that perpetuate violence and hierarchy. Godlings don't really add to that.

In my opinion, the best move is to expand the story vertically instead of laterally. It could use less new ideas and more depth in the ideas that were already developed.

I've seen a lot of debate about what Sara and Samin's gifts are but it's pretty clear that gifts, not just essence colors, are hereditary. Taeho Gyeon's entire family has the same gift, including his grandfather, father, and the twins. Ryujin has the same gift as her mom. Iseul has the same gift as his dad, who was shown floating him in the air in one panel. The current leader of the Concordat has the same gift as his ancestor: talking to birds. Every single character who have aberrant parents with known gifts has the same gift.

From a storytelling perspective, it's possible that Sarah and Samin have certain quirks in their rewind gifts that set them apart from Sayeon/make it worth keeping them a secret. Rewinding time is an interesting concept and there could be several different ways to explore it. I'm assuming that Sara and Samin might be able to rewind further back since Sara mentioned that she misremembered the date once.

Edit: Hey guys. Being able to predict the future and being able to rewind time are not as different as you think they are.

"The aberrant corps will go to war in a month's time." Not against the gangs though.

When I heard Ryujin recounting the four brothers' tale, I found the story really familiar. In fact, I've heard it several times because it appears in the history of multiple cultures.

There's a famous Chinese story. Han Xin became one of Liu Bang's best commanders, playing a big role in the establishment of the Han dynasty. However, his military and political power made him dangerous. He was eventually executed.

Another example is Belisarius under Emperor Justinian. Belisarius became the empire's premier general, winning major victories and reconquering territory. Justinian eventually blinded Belisarius and forced him to beg in the streets.

Septimius Severus is an example of a commander using his troops to rebel. After Emperor Pertinax was murdered, Severus was proclaimed emperor by his troops and marched on Rome. He became emperor after defeating other rivals. This honestly might be Han's path after he defeats the criminal gangs.

Sleep has emphasized how aberrants are discriminated so many times in the story that I don't think it's just a world-building detail. I mean they literally have their futures ripped from them to spend their lives killing other aberrants. The status quo is very shaky, and I don't think it's just shaky to add tension. That tension has to build and snap at some point.

It makes total sense for the aberrants to revolt. They haven't done so because human technology is more powerful and the real military can put down the rebellion. I think this is also why no aberrant we've seen so far has a gun or any sort of modern weapon.

Lilith is the key. Samin said that Lilith is a weapon of mass destruction. After Han gets his hands on Lilith, there's nothing holding him back.

In fact, I'm not sure if which group gets Lilith really matters. Whoever has it is going to rebel. There's no way the Begonias are just planning on using Lilith to farm rapture.

The fact that aberrants can commit mass murder on humans is also something that has been repeatedly emphasized in the story. If they do rebel, I think they'll commit atrocities against the human population.

I wonder what Sayeon's role would be as well. Would she betray the corps? Would she help them win?

This is definitely the philosophical center of HJ and it is such an interesting question.

Sayeon's godling has already taken a part of her humanity.

A crucial part of humanity is the uncertainty we have to face. We have no do-overs. We use our undisciplined emotions and our limited knowledge to make decisions that will last forever. We haggle and fight with others to glean even a bit more wisdom… or to convince them, and by proxy ourselves, that we are wise.

If you approach a situation with complete knowledge of what will happen next, you're behaving like a god or a king. You order people to do things without consulting them as if you're exercising the divine power of kings.

It is also profoundly isolating. The traveler is isolated by knowledge. There's a wall between you and everyone else. Peopl have to deliberate, compromise, argue, and hope. The traveler doesn't have to participate in any of that anymore.

It also makes you less free. Humans live in uncertainty, but also freedom. The feeling that we can write our own endings, chosen from an infinite selection of paths.

Time travel removes that freedom because you already know what is going to happen next and at that point, your only goal is to make the most optimized decision to get the result you want.

I think the fact that Sayeon's gift seems so inconsequential pushes this point home. Only one minute? Just 60 seconds is enough to make you less human. Imagine traveling years back in time.

Her only crime is hypocrisy. Like I too would be plotting in every waking moment to get to a red tie so I'm not part of the 16 out of 20 people who will die.

Edit: Hey guys, please learn reading comprehension before commenting something that completely misunderstands the point of this post.

I've seen so many people fight over whether it's appropriate to ship certain HJ characters but imo homoeroticism is a really interesting concept bc it allows relationships to be ambiguous. Characters can define a relationship as a friendship while struggling with their own confusing desires and overly strong attachments. Relationships are complicated like that and it's great for the author to explore it by giving some friends chemistry.

Imo both sides of the issue jump too quickly to label characters as if they're either "in love" or "just friends." They're allowed to be both.

Homoerotic friendships can also be used to comment on social conditioning, like "if we weren't taught that straight is the only normal, maybe these characters would be able to name their feelings for each other." Or in more subtle ways, even Sara's death and Wolhye's grieving could represent the fact that a romantic relationship between them was never possible in the society they lived in.

But the plausible deniability can be really frustrating and I genuinely hope that the author has the guts to write at least one explicitly queer relationship, even while allowing others to exist in a gray area.

Here's my question for the culture: where's the line between homoerotic friendships and queerbaiting?

In silent films and early sound films, queerness in women was represented with a cigarette + suit combo bc films couldn't overtly depict lesbians. Cigarettes especially were considered phallic symbols. Marlene Dietrich in Morocco is a famous example of this.

Also a more modern example is Graham smoking in But I'm a Cheerleader.

I'm wondering if Sleep is giving a subtle nod to this tradition? Especially since she talked about how Lucy's eyes originated from a famous silent film actress.

Or maybe these characters just like to smoke idk.