OTL Analysis

Just saw such an amazing analysis of OTL that I just had to share it. It’s a Korean comment from Naver Webtoon:
“1. There are so many people who don’t understand why the story jumped 10 years into the future or why Marang failed, so please read this…

Part 1 of this story(before the time-skip) follows ‘Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles’, while Part 2(after the time-skip) follows ‘I Became the Black Rose of Versailles’ (Suae’s spin off novel).

In Part 1, the story of these three characters was shaped by Haru’s interference and ultimately ended unfinished, just like ‘Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles’.
Because of the love point system, Suae was someone who couldn’t receive love. Dohwa expressed his sincere feelings, but they couldn’t reach her.

Despite Marang’s interference and the love point system, Eunhyuk and Suae managed to express their feelings for each other (eternal love). However, misunderstandings between Suae and Eunhyuk, along with Eunhyuk’s family falling apart because of Raim, eventually led to a separation they didn’t wanted it.

In Part 2, after Marang’s downfall and the disappearance of Haru’s interference, the story follows ‘I Became the Black Rose of Versailles’, which Suae is writing herself.

With Marang gone, external interference has disappeared, and Suae has become someone capable of receiving love.

This marks the beginning of questions about the characters’ true feelings, with Dohwa’s sincerity being the first sign of what’s to come, and the second sign being whether Eunhyuk’s love, which Suae had been denying, was genuine.

In short, Part 1 was an unfinished story because of Haru’s interference and external obstacles.
Part 2, however, is a story about discovering everyone’s true feelings and seeing how their love stories will end now that the obstacle known as Marang has disappeared.

2. In part 2, Dohwa finally overcame the obstacle that had prevented him from believing he could stay by Suae’s side in Part 1 which is his feelings of inferiority and unworthiness. With that obstacle gone, his sincere feelings could finally reach Suae.
Meanwhile, Suae tried to accept Dohwa’s feelings because she wanted to forget Eunhyuk and didn't want to hurt Dohwa the way she had in the past.
However, Eunhyuk still lingered in her mind, and she couldn't develop romantic feelings for Dohwa. Instead her guilt, sense of indebtedness, and feelings of hypocrisy continued to grow because her actions didn't align with her true feelings. Ultimately this only caused an even deeper wound.
She eventually reached a point where there was no way to avoid hurting him. If she accepted his feelings, she still wouldn't be able to give him her heart. But if she rejected him, she would inflict the same pain on him that she had in the past.
Even so, because she couldn't give him her heart she chose to reject him and cause him the same pain as before rather than inflict an even greater wound.
This resolves the situation established in Part 1, demonstrating that having your sincere feelings reach someone and having those feelings reciprocated are two entirely different things.
As for Eunhyuk, regardless of the circumstances or misunderstandings, their separation was ultimately one in which he had done something wrong.
So for Suae's happiness, he decided to watch over her and protect her from afar.
But that wasn't what truly made Suae happy. When he gave her the shoes, he finally heard her true feelings and found the courage to approach her again.
Ultimately, Dohwa must let her go because he loves her and Eunhyuk must approach her again because he loves her, and Suae must choose love according to her own true feelings.

3. Part 1 ended as a distorted and unfinished story because of outside interference, such as Haru and the love points system.
However, Part 2 is about the characters discovering their true feelings and completing their own endings now that those interventions and obstacles have disappeared.
Dohwa and Eunhyuk's character arcs progress in opposite directions.
Dohwa overcame the obstacle he believed had prevented him from fulfilling his love and was given another chance. However, he now has to face the fundamental reason why he cannot win Suae's heart.
On the other hand, Eunhyuk spent ten years completely disconnected from Suae. He chose to avoid her because he loved her, believing that watching over and protecting her from afar was the right decision.
But he needs to realize that he cannot decide what makes Suae happy simply by watching her from a distance. Instead, they need to clear up their misunderstandings, communicate their true feelings, and move forward.
As for Suae, despite everything that happened, the wounds from ten years ago, and their painful separation, her love for Eunhyuk has remained unchanged.
What the story emphasizes isn't an attempt to justify the reasons behind Eunhyuk and Suae's separation or absolve Eunhyuk of responsibility.
Rather, it's about the process of uncovering misunderstandings and facing responsibility despite the separation and pain.
It shows that even as they change and grow toward each other, they don't lose the essence of who they are or what they feel. And that eternal love established in Part 1 still remains.

4. If we apply the novels to the story:
Part 1 story ‘Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles’: Edward, Cindy (Suae), and Gray.
Part 2 story ‘I Became the Black Rose of Versailles’: Gray and Cindy.
In Part 1 story, Edward represents Eunhyuk, while Gray represents Dohwa. That interpretation is correct.
However, this corresponds to the unfinished version of Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles, which was affected by Haru's interference.
In the og novel, Edward(ml) is blond and Gray(2nd ml) has black hair. In reality, their appearances are reversed from the very beginning, creating a dual narrative structure.
In Part 2, their narrative positions are reversed as well.
Dohwa has overcome his past inferiority complex and difficult circumstances and has become successful.
Meanwhile, Eunhyuk has fallen into despair following the collapse of his family and an unwanted separation, carrying misunderstandings and secrets with him.
Part 2 illustrates this reversal through mirrored scenes in which Eunhyuk and Dohwa experience events with Suae that correspond to each other's experiences in Part 1.
These include their first meetings, the movie, the hospital visit, and the kiss.
In the comments under Chapter 106, there were reactions saying that the revelation of Gray's secret would give readers chills and that the moment his true feelings were revealed would bring them to tears.
Currently, in Part 2, the character carrying misunderstandings and secrets while hiding his true feelings is Eunhyuk.
In other words, the narrative role Edward (Eunhyuk) played in Part 1 has shifted to Dohwa in I Became the Black Rose of Versailles(Suae novel), while Gray's narrative role has shifted to Eunhyuk.
Their appearances in reality now also align with the characters' appearances in the novel.
Therefore, in Part 2:
Edward = Dohwa
Gray = Eunhyuk.

5. In Part 1, Eunhyuk and Suae loved each other and successfully became a couple.
However, unwanted misunderstandings continued to accumulate, ultimately leading to their separation and an unfinished ending.
Marang and Raim interfered throughout the process of their relationship and eventual breakup.
Their story wasn't something they had written entirely through their own choices.
Instead, it resembled ‘Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles’, a story that ended without a proper conclusion.
However, Part 2 follows Suae as she makes her own decisions without interference from Marang or the love point system.
It's a story about her moving toward discovering the true feelings and the conclusion of the love she shared with Eunhyuk, which had been left unfinished.
It resembles ‘I Became the Black Rose of Versailles’, where she writes her own future with her own hands.
This also connects to George's existence.
In ‘I Became the Black Rose of Versailles’, Suae personally erased George from the story because he was the son of Edward and Cindy, meaning he couldn't exist within the new version of the narrative.
Ironically, George was also the character she felt the most protective toward, someone especially precious and painful to her.
But now that Eunhyuk, who represented Edward in Part 1, has become Gray in Part 2, even George's existence can be preserved.
Marang's downfall, despite the company once seeming eternal, isn't the author simply abandoning an established plot element.
Suae returned the Jellypop phone, Eunhyuk stepped away from Edward's position, and Dohwa broke free from Marang.
All of this serves to bring an end to the narrative structure of Parts 1 and 2 that had been shaped by Haru's interference and the unfinished story of ‘Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles’.
It allows Suae to move forward on her own and complete the story of her love and future through her own choices.

6. There are also so many misunderstandings surrounding Go Eunhyuk.
Why did he keep in contact with Yoo Raim?
Eunhyuk believed Raim was his half-sister.
In Chapter 77, Raim asked him to act like her older brother and questioned whether he was going to abandon her too.
This revealed Eunhyuk's past trauma surrounding his father's infidelity and his belief that Raim's mother had been his father's mistress.
He also questioned how his father could bring Raim into the family without even discussing it with Raim's mother.
Because of his guilt, Eunhyuk couldn't bring himself to reject her.
In Chapter 83, at the columbarium where Raim's mother's remains were kept, Eunhyuk's guilt was revealed again.
He believed that everything had happened because of his father's infidelity and felt responsible for taking care of Raim on his father's behalf.
In other words, Eunhyuk couldn't turn his back on a half-sister who had lost her mother simply because she was family.
He was trapped by the guilt of believing that he must never abandon his family the way his father had.
That's why he couldn't bring himself to ignore Raim whenever she approached or contacted him.
And that's why, the moment he learned they weren't actually family, he immediately cut ties with her.
For reference, Suae shares something similar with Eunhyuk.
Even though she dislikes Raim, she also continued maintaining contact with her because of their family relationship and their parents.

7. Why Did Go Eunhyuk Leave?
Go Eunhyuk is portrayed as someone who hides his inner struggles because he believes that even the people most precious to him won't be able to understand him if they learn about his vulnerabilities.
He couldn't even tell Suae the truth about his ear condition and chose to hide it.
At the most difficult point in his life when the rumors about his father's affair were spreading, and his mother had attempted suicide.
During that time Eunhyuk called Suae, the only person who had ever been his safe haven.
But Suae rejected his call.
This connected to Eunhyuk's trauma from when he injured his ear and his mother turned away from him.
Meanwhile, Suae avoided the situation because she didn't know how to handle it or what she was supposed to do.
Seeing Suae reject his call made Eunhyuk believe that she couldn't understand him either.
Even so, he still went to see her before leaving but they never managed to meet.
Eunhyuk also couldn't turn his back on his family because of the trauma caused by his father.
His family-related trauma and the misunderstandings with Suae became intertwined, and he had no choice but to accompany his mother abroad for her studies.
We also need to remember that Eunhyuk was only a highschool student at the time.
Although his family appeared wealthy and glamorous from the outside, he was suffering because of his family circumstances and his ear condition.
Suae had been his hope.
But because of their misunderstandings, even that hope was cut off.
Ultimately, their separation was caused by misunderstandings arising from external circumstances, though this does not serve as an excuse for his actions.

8. Why Couldn't Eunhyuk Contact Suae?
Eunhyuk had fallen apart so badly that he was seeing hallucinations of Suae.
After experiencing his mother's death as well, his trauma became even worse.
Eventually, he felt as though he would die if he couldn't see Suae, so he returned to Korea to look for her.
However, when he saw her, she appeared to be doing perfectly fine, unlike him.
Because of that, he couldn't bring himself to approach her.
He believed that appearing in front of her would be nothing more than a selfish attempt to ease his own suffering and that he would only interfere with her happiness.
He also couldn't bear to show her how miserable and pathetic he had become.
So he decided to miss her on his own.
But even that became unbearable.
He occasionally returned to Korea and looked for Suae, pretending that their encounters were coincidental.
Afterward, he continued living a life consumed by sleeping pills, overworking, and emotional emptiness.
Then, when he received a proposal from Korea containing the name Shim Suae, he used it as an excuse to go see her.
He was afraid that if he admitted he still hadn't forgotten her after ten years, she would find him creepy.
So he hid his feelings and greeted her with the worst possible words:"it’s been a while, How have you been?"
However, during their final farewell, he finally heard Suae's true feelings.
He realized that although she had appeared fine on the outside, she had actually been suffering terribly on the inside.
That was when he understood that the actions he had justified as being for Suae's happiness had been wrong.
In the end, he decided that this time, regardless of the outcome, he would confront his feelings and take the risk, even if it meant regretting it afterward.
So he used Lee Doyeon's wedding as an excuse to return to Korea once again, this time intending to approach Suae directly.

9. Why Did Suae Accept Dohwa's Physical Affection?
Because of the error in the love points system, Suae believed she was someone who couldn't receive love.
However, 10 years later, she discovered that this wasn't actually true.
She initiated a kiss with Eunhyuk and expressed her feelings by asking whether he still liked her.
But after being rejected and even seeing him with another woman, she tried to push him away with harsh words and forget him.
Later, she learned about Dohwa's sincere feelings from the past and the painful years he had experienced without her knowing.
However, even while looking out at the rainy sea, she was still thinking about Eunhyuk.
The slight attraction she felt toward Dohwa was closer to being drawn to the way he loved her than to genuine romantic feelings for him.
She accepted his kiss because she didn't want to hurt him the way she had in the past.
But because her actions contradicted her true feelings, she felt hypocritical and guilty.
Even when she was sick, she understood that Dohwa's kindness came from love.
However, because she couldn't reciprocate those feelings, she used her illness as an excuse to accept his warmth without having to give anything back.
Later, she felt anger and humiliation when she learned that Eunhyuk had stayed in contact with Raim, the person who had exposed his father's affair.
Then, when she saw Dohwa waiting for her, she projected her own experience of being rejected by Eunhyuk onto him.
Out of pity, sympathy, and guilt, she hugged him.
Ultimately, the actions she took to avoid repeating the pain she had caused Dohwa in the past ended up causing him even greater pain.

10. The Meaning Behind Suae's Rejection of Dohwa
All of these emotions are condensed into the words Suae says when she rejects him.
"I feel like all I ever do is hurt you."
This means that the things she did because she didn't want to hurt him ended up causing even greater pain, and she realized those actions were wrong.
"I feel like I'll just keep hurting you."
Even if she accepts his feelings, she cannot give him her heart. Therefore, she knows she will continue hurting him.
"At this point, I don't even know how to avoid hurting you anymore."
Suae accepted Dohwa's affection because she felt guilt, compassion, pity, and remorse toward him and didn't want him to suffer.
But that only ended up hurting him more.
Now that things have reached this point, accepting him would hurt him because she cannot love him back.
Rejecting him would also hurt him because it would repeat the pain of the past.
She no longer knows what she can do to keep him from getting hurt.
Ironically, everything she did to avoid causing Dohwa the same pain as before only continued to inflict even deeper wounds.
So she chose to cause him the comparatively lesser pain of rejection, even though it meant repeating the past.
The scandal was merely the event that accelerated her rejection. The fundamental reason was her realization that she couldn't love him.
Each character's emotional journey has been shown continuously throughout the story, so I genuinely don't understand why people are so determined to hate on these characters.

11. The Mirroring Between Eunhyuk and Dohwa
This situation occurs because the roles of Go Eunhyuk and Baek Dohwa in their experiences with Suae have been reversed from Part 1.
Their first meeting with ulterior motives, their date, and their kiss are all condensed, mirrored versions of the events Suae experienced with Eunhyuk in Part 1.
Why?
Because in ‘Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles’, Edward represented Go Eunhyuk.
But in Part 2, ‘I Became the Black Rose of Versailles’, Edward's role has shifted to Baek Dohwa, while Gray's role has shifted to Go Eunhyuk.
As we know, Part 1 was an unfinished version of ‘Cindy, the Black Rose Girl of Versailles’, shaped by Haru's interference and an environment designed by outside forces.
Part 2, however, follows ‘I Became the Black Rose of Versailles’, where the characters express their genuine feelings and write their own stories without Haru's interference.
Please stop carelessly making things up about the story and saying ridiculous things. Go back and read it again.
The story has already given us all the answers.

12. Dohwa's story hasn't been properly concluded yet, so I believe he'll appear again.
As for Haru, I think both possibilities are still open. He might return, or he might not.
I can't completely rule out either possibility.
But it's also true that his role in the story has essentially come to an end, so I'm not entirely sure.
In Part 2, it seems that he was intentionally removed from the story so that the narrative could focus more on the relationships between the characters.

13. The Story Makes More Sense When You Reread It
Even though this is long, I hope everyone takes the time to read it.
I've criticized the author a lot myself.
But because there were still things I couldn't understand, I went back and reread the story.
Please try reading it again.
Even if the storytelling seems difficult to follow or doesn't explain everything directly, the story actually provides enough information to understand what's happening.
I also don't think Dohwa's role will end like this.
He'll appear again.
The three of them will come together again, confront Suae's happiness, and move forward without remaining trapped in the past.
I think the biggest problem with Part 2 was probably the hiatus.”