on gyeoul and his backstory
I spontaneously decided to reread Gyeoul's backstory and wowee I've got some things to say. You know when you reread and find something you don't remember at all? I just found out Gyeoul canonically does not like Taejin lol.
I want to start by saying that to me, Gyeoul remains one of the most fascinating characters in all of Lookism. And I think his backstory, as well as the First Affiliate arc, was handled really well. Ok let me just say what I have to say. I really thought I knew everything about Gyeoul after rereading his backstory so many times. But reading it now, I noticed some things that did not click to me before.
First off, I never realized just how much Gyeoul's parents influenced his goals and desires. Yes, we know he is a sociopath and everything, but I never really thought about why. Also I'm gonna use the parents' names for simplicity.
Yeonghwan is written as someone who cares most about power, influence, and fame. As it relates to Gyeoul, his only desire is for him to become a plastic surgeon like him. It's presumed that this is the same reason Hangyeoul is a plastic surgeon, but we never see that conversation. It's hard to tell the exact reason he wants Gyeoul to follow in his footsteps, he just has to. My concern is where the naked women on the TV come into play. What he TRIED to do was influence Gyeoul to value beauty and specific beauty standards to drive an ambition to become a plastic surgeon. What HAPPENED was that Gyeoul, being his own person (and a few other reasons), developed beauty standards that were radically different to his father's, BUT that interest in beauty and women's faces still remained. Rather than developing a passion for conventional beauty, Yeonghwan inadvertently caused Gyeoul to become obsessed with this alternative idea of beauty while still pushing him to become a plastic surgeon. Do you see where this is headed?
Doyeon has a notably better relationship with Gyeoul (even though he killed her, which I will get into). Doyeon's only important personality trait is that she only cares about money. Not fame, recognition, achievements. She doesn't seem to have any bearing on Gyeoul's choice of study, but she does not argue with Yeonghwan on it either. The strange thing is that despite worrying about money, she does not exhibit any concern for her oldest son who is actively losing money. In fact, we don't see them interact at all. She was not against Hangyeoul going to volunteer for the homeless either. Neither of the parents expressed any concern for the fact that Hangyeoul was the only doctor there. However, Doyeon did mention that she knew Yeonghwan would not volunteer, he'd only put up a picture of himself.
Back to Gyeoul. The reason I find him so fascinating and why I am writing this character analysis is because it seems that despite Gyeoul's efforts, he ended becoming exactly like parents. In trying to refute his destiny of becoming a plastic surgeon and working at his father's clinic....he quite literally became a plastic surgeon and took over his father's clinic.
Think about. He resented his father (reasons are somewhat unclear), but took on his obsession with beauty and women's faces, just in a different way. He imprisoned his father and took over the clinic because he wanted to fulfill his goals as a plastic surgeon. Whether or not he wanted to be a plastic surgeon, we actually don't know, but even if he didn't, he still ended becoming just as twisted and perverted as his father, if not more.
The reason his killed his mother is because he took on the only character trait she was given: her obsession with money. Killing Doyeon was not necessary. They had a decent relationship and there was zero indication of Doyeon getting in Gyeoul's way for anything, other than being the one in charge of the plastic surgery clinic. It didn't matter that she already had the pysch ward, he wanted the clinic and he was going to have it. And so he betrayed her and killed her. Her obsession with money ended being the trait that Gyeoul learned from her and it was ultimately her downfall.
I also think Yeonghwan and Hangyeoul had something to do with Gyeoul's unhealthy relationship with money. I think that the reason Yeonghwan was forcing him to be a plastic surgeon was definitely for money, but Gyeoul specifically looked down on Hangyeoul for putting people above money. It's like almost like Gyeoul thought if he had enough money, he would be able to escape his parents. And to him, Hangyeoul was already there. If you had the chance to make money, why wouldn't you leave?
Despite Gyeoul trying to fight against his whole family and have his way, he took on the worst traits of his parents and they manifested into a literal psychopath. They tried so hard to raise him to be a certain way and completely failed because they didn't realize that their dysfunctional personality traits and marriage would have such an effect. Sprinkle in a sense of typical rich kid entitlement, and you got Gyeoul. What's interesting is that we have no information about Hangyeoul's development and how he became the person he is. It really reminds of Jake and Gitae, where one of them has the bad side of Gapryong and the other has the good side. Gyeoul got the perverted sense of beauty, the obsession with money, he even got Yeonghwan's habit of sacrificing other people instead of himself. Remember how he wouldn't volunteer? And remember how Gyeoul was fucking up everyone's face except his own?
PTJ doesn't always get it right (let's be real, he almost never does these days), but Gyeoul's story is something I have always admired.
