would anyone be interested if i just make a whole post about my every translation issue with the official english translation of hwagwi? because every day i discover a new problem with it and it drives me up the fucking wall. like i genuinely feel like i lose several years off my life at every new discovery
OKAY TWF4 spoilers and Felix Kranken as a character (really more of just him)
(tw for suicide ideations)
how do I say this man I just. I just find felix kranken so fucking interesting?
like obviously we knew of him as this skeevy, alcoholic businessman who killed his best friend's kids (though unintentionally), hid his crimes, silenced anyone who came close to discovering the truth, and was now likely out to get his niece sophie as well. clearly we were meant to view him as someone irredeemable and a villain right?
but then came twf4 and we get so many more layers to his character than we initially thought
we knew from "Guilty" that he regretted killing the kids, yet still worried more about the restaurant opening, making him seem a bit more unsympathetic to his supposed niece and nephew. but with twf4, that wasn't entirely the case.
we were given a man so distraught at the idea that he'd gotten his best friend's children killed (kids who he was close enough to consider family as well) that he'd thought about killing himself more than once after burying them. in the end, he didn't, and even kept a memento of the incident.
we thought that he killed jack and everyone else just to keep them from finding out, but instead he "fessed up" to the family. except he didn't actually, and lied about what really happened to the children.
we knew him for being an alcoholic thanks to linda and his own confession tapes, but we found out now that he actively lied about his alcoholism to his own friends, with the only ones who actually do know about it being his ex-wife and seemingly the cyberfun tech employees (also worth noting that it seemed like jack wasn't involved with handling this department, hence why he didn't find out about it). this makes the phone call of jack asking felix to drive the kids to school and back even WORSE. because jack doesn't know about the alcoholism, he didn't know that he was giving a man with a drinking problem a handle on his kids' safety. felix clearly knew of his own addiction and yet still took the kids anyway, despite hesitating to do so.
several different occasions we've been given of felix where he plans to do one thing, but turns around to do another. felix is aware of when he's doing something wrong and very much wants to admit to them, but he chickens out and deflects last minute. he's afraid of the repercussions, of losing respect from people he cares about, or at least people who he didn't want seeing him be a "failure". even when he'd come close when admitting to the waltens, he chickened out and lied to them on what really happened to the children.
he was too cowardly to admit to his addiction, too cowardly say no to his best friend, too cowardly to end his own life after his crime, too cowardly to throw away incriminating evidence (and even hid it from the family) and too cowardly to actually confess his killing of children. he's a real coward, through and through. because of that, his cowardice brought about the worst consequences, what with a malicious entity seemingly latching onto him and killing those close to him one by one with him none the wiser. and now that entity had set their sights on sophie, who it seems he personally took in and cared for.
it's very interesting of martin to write such a complex character who we're clearly not meant to root for but understood how he felt the way he did. it makes me wonder what martin actually plans for felix now, with sophie being the target. will he finally, finally start his path to redemption and stop being a coward to protect her? i suppose we'll find out in the future. either way, i'm looking forward to it.
cheongmyeong who's proudest of baek cheon for all he accomplished despite his initial assessment of him having a bleak future auwhuhhghhh....... i'm so emotional....
