A dystopia where sorority is weaponized...?
Ethology (Study of Animal Behavior)
Something that seemed interesting to me since the beginning of the series is how Kang Yo Han perceived himself as an outsider. It is not that he is rich and enjoys chaos, but that he has always been excluded from society due to his upbringing, in which he was isolated. He learned about human interactions from books and that one maid. He's not part of humanity but an outsider that is fascinated by how predictable their behavior can be.
As part of his upbringing and the trauma he holds, he's also very aware of the darkest parts of humans, and I bet if he were to be asked if humans are inheretly good or bad, he would respond that they're merely animals of instinct with a hyper developed sense of self. As in, humans, for him, will only look after themselves and no one else.
Adding to this, in the latest episode, when Kim Ga On tries to attack him because he thinks he was involved in the incident surrounding Yoon Soo Hyun, he reacts aggresively, showing an act of dominance, but when you analyze the scene closely, you realize it was a self preservation act. A trauma response, if you will. He hates being touched due to the abuse he endured.
Something that I loved about this particular scene, and why I screenshoted it despite the awkwardness it has in it, is not that they're having a tender moment between the three, or that there's a table full of food, or even the fact that Kang Yo Han is acting childish but the reason why he's acting childish.
He views Ms. Ji as a mother figure, and she caught him red handed doing something he has never done for her. Kang Yo Han definitely has felt sorry for her multiple times, but I bet this was bad because he doesn't know how to react.
It is not that Yo Han grew up without a family, but that his family was weird, and at the center of it was Ms. Ji, who he has come to disappoint due to piled up misunderstandings. Kang Yo Han does love her, but he doesn't know how to face her disappointment, and the pain he has caused her.
For Kang Yo Han, family is something you protect and care for silently, because he was never at the forefront of it. Also, in this shot, other things we can see, is how he feels about the rest of his "family" based on how he paces the room and the distance he has from them.
Another scene that is worth noting under this title is the one in which we can see how deep the misunderstandings and miscommunications between Yo Han and Elijah run. It is not that there isn't love between them, but that when we face grief, we also wish to put blame on someone. Elijah puts blame on Yo Han to deal with her grief, and Yo Han just takes it without explaining his actions.
It is fair that Elijah feels that way, because in trying to protect her, Yo Han, instead, seems to communicate he wants to control her and that he doesn't trust her.
It is not until they face their own pain, that they'll be able to understand each other.
What kind of coin are we tossing now?
You remember how I said Kang Yo Han and Kim Ga On are two sides of the same coin? A duality of sorts? I think the same can be said about Kang Yo Han and Jeong Seon A. But this isn't a coin that's set by Yo Han. If anything, he's trying to run from the world Jeong Seon A has built and where she wants to position him.
They're both manipulative beings but for completely different purposes and completely different roots. If anything, we can see them as a form of convergent evolution - when completely different species develop similar traits- they became the way they were due to completely different reasons. They may look similar on the outside, but their core values and motives are so far parallel lines, they will not touch.
On one hand, Ms. Jeong is like that due to the inferiority complex she had when young, and her disdain for the rich, her manipulative tactics were a way to climb up and gain. On the other hand, Judge Kang became that way as a mean to escape abuse and to protect himself from further harm. You see? In a way, they both became the way they did due to survival, and have therefore, developed the same skills, despite how different they are.
Judge Kang is a shark and Ms. Jeong is a dolphin.
How Ms. Jeong uses her position as a woman to her advantage.
Am I obsessed with the perceived villain of the story? Yes. We ought to talk about how Ms. Jeong has played her game so far. She's never the one in power in front of others, she's but a messenger, and a messenger can never be shot. It's common courtesy.
Furthermore, Ms. Jeong, aware that others perceive women as weak, takes this to her advantage. That's why she's able to do it all in the shadows. Only two people have seen through her, and that's because she likes Judge Kang too much, and because Minister Cha became a small fish entangled in the fight between two particularly smart species.
Once again, I have to compliment how this is masterfully conveyed through the cinematography of the show. In the first shot (that I put in the bottom for some reason), she's but a wallflower, not meant to be seen or heard, letting Minister Cha be perceived as the one of power in the room.
When alone, she positions herself in the same place Minister Cha was just on, and spreads herself. Her body language, and the way the scene is shot is enough to convey how truly powerful she is.
Knowing that women are perceived as weak, she uses other women to get her means, because they will pass under the radar in front of arrogant men who think themselves the center of attention. The cards she plays always involve a woman:
Enhacing Minister Cha's motherhood to incite public empathy.
Manipulating the wives and not the husbands.
Planting a seed in Judge Oh to change the system.
Having her assistant be a woman.
Presenting herself as a compassionate secretary.
This kind of attention to character building and complexity is to be commended, but I can't help but realize this is also a script written by a man. Why must sorority be weaponized for a story to move forward? Still, it is quite the fresh take.
Manipulating the public's opinion is easier than one may think at first
A big part of the message tried to convey by The Devil Judge is how dangerous media representation and authority bias can be. It is no secret.
It does it in both subtle and forefront ways. On the former, it does it by showing parts where Minister Cha is rallying for sympathy from the viewers, where hypocrisy is shown, or well, where people seem to have woken up from the daze they were in. Meaning, they begin to question the actions perceived as immoral, absolving themselves from it. Another example is the president portraying himself as normal.
In less subtle ways, but way more gutural is the way kids were playing about flogging and how, because Judge Kang viewed it as just, his fanatics started mimicking and distorting the behavior in a vigilante manner.
This reminds me a lot of the Milgram Experiment once again, where because there's no authority putting a limit, those underneath continue to push despite their awareness of possible harm and immorality of their actions.
Here, terms as authority bias, Argument from authority, belief perseverance are important. A similar experiment is that of The Third Wave movement, where a teacher explained by demonstration how easy it is to manipulate the masses to have a certain set of beliefs, despite their own morality.
