#webtoon meta

[faeriejukyung]

True Beauty’s Gaping Mother Wound

*disclaimer*: I understand that all the listed traits are things which are often very common in Asian households, and it may seem that rather than being concerning, these are just a part of Asian culture. That is why, I feel that it’s necessary for me to make it clear that I am, in fact, Asian (Indian to be specific), and parental abuse is something that is extremely normalized here. As someone who has experienced it firsthand, I want to say that just because something is common/normal, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is correct. If you or anyone you know is in a situation like that, it’s very very important to speak out. And it’s not your fault, i know it’s easier to believe that way but it’s really not. We deserve to be in a loving environment, regardless of what culture we are born in.

Throughout the drama, Jukyung’s mother shows many traits of an abusive mother. I have been able to outline 4 of them. I don’t mean to write her off as an evil character,, because overall she is well intentioned, and just like any other mom, she does love Jukyung. This is shown in episode 8 too, where she shows remorse for her actions. That however, doesn’t justify her abusive behavioral patterns in any way. Because we can see how badly it affects Jukyung, her self esteem and her overall view of herself.

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Act 1: “I’m going to kill you today and go to jail” -- Physical Violence.

Throughout the series, we see Jukyung's mother being very violent. But one scene which particularly stood out to me was the scene where she finds out about Jukyung's dad getting scammed. (in episode 1). While it is true that her dad caused a huge financial loss to the family, and anyone would feel angry in a situation like that, it is also true that there is never a good reason to physically abuse someone.

After hearing the news, Jukyung's mom is overcome by anger. It's completely okay to feel frustrated, but the way she violently jumped at her husband, clearly intentioned to hurt him, and the way she needed to be held back by juyoung and heekyung highlights her abusive nature. And this isn't a one time thing where she momentarily lost control of herself. She constantly shows similar behavioural traits throughout the drama.

In the scene where we see Jukyung's mom and dad together properly for the first time, their relationship dynamic is established. He's meekly massaging her shoulders while she orders him around. Their is an obvious power imbalance in the relationship, and the way Jukyung's dad cowers in fear around Jukyung's mom is a proof of that.

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Act 2: "Why would you kill my precious son?" -- Conditional Love.

We see examples of Jukyung’s Mom’s conditional love in the kdrama AND in the webtoon. Conditional love is when a parent or a parental figure makes their child compete for love. They withhold their affection until the kid acts in ways that are desirable to them, and if the kid fails to do so, the parent often punishers them through different methods. This is their way of maintaining control over their children.

Jukyung’s Mom’s conditional love manifests itself in the form of favoritism towards her eldest daughter Heekyung, who’s not only conventionally beautiful but also very smart and has a high paying job, and towards her youngest child and only son, Juyoung, who is also written to be very attractive. Both Juyoung and Heekyung have gifts that Jukyung does not posses -- beauty and brains. The conditions that are established in order to attain their mother’s affection are getting good grades at school, and being conventionally attractive, which is why Jukyung often gets the shorter end of the stick

In the scene where we are first meet Heekyung is the drama, their mom’s affection towards her is very evident.

This is shown in the webtoon too.

She displays this favoritism towards Juyoung too, and even more so. In episode 1 where Jukyung tries makeup for the first time, and gets ridiculed by him for doing a bad job at it, she naturally feels angry and yells at him, “do you want to die?!”, but instead of telling Juyoung to stop, their mother yells at Jukyung for yelling at Juyoung (”why would you kill my precious son? why?”). It’s already very evident that Juyoung has picked up the habit of constantly taunting Jukyung for her face from his mom. In the webtoon, when Jukyung decides that she wants to pursue makeup arts and asks for her mom’s support and fees for academy, her mom flat-out refuses, saying that they don’t have enough money. However as we find out later, money wasn’t the problem, because she had enough money to send Juyoung to a cram school for acting.

I find it hard to believe that any good parent would constantly compare their children and pit them against each other like this. In the webtoon and the kdrama, it is made clear that Juyoung doesn’t have particularly good grades either, but he doesn’t have to face his mother’s wrath by the virtue of being good looking. Jukyung on the other hand, does not have any redeeming qualities.

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Act 3: “I’m going to throw all your makeup away” --Excessive Anger.

Another sign of parental abuse is display of excessive anger. It’s usually used as an intimidation tactic to keep the child in line. Sometimes, it can simply happen because they lose control of themselves. Either way, parents who get angry more often than what is supposed to be normal, and hurt their children (physically or verbally) in the midst of their anger, repeatedly, are abusive. I feel like I don’t even need to elaborate on this one. Jukyung’s Mom is angry during half of her scenes. And the way she acts upon that anger crosses the limit too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to express your the way you feel, but the way Jukyung’s Mom does it, is extremely unhealthy and hurtful to others around her. Whether she’s jumping on Jukyung’s dad or talking down on Im Jukyung, she’s very inconsiderate of how her anger affects others. She almost always expresses herself in an extremely volatile way.

Jukyung described makeup as a hopeful light opening up a new life for her. There’s even a whole music segment of her discovering the powers of makeup, characterized by pastel and bubblegum tones, and the segment has a magical feel to it. Suffice to say that makeup brought an almost magical kind of hope and optimism to her life. In episode 6, Jukyung's Mom goes to her school to get her report card. When she sees her low grades, she gets so angry that she threatens to throw away her makeup, without once considering why Jukyung is so attached to it. In my eyes, she's actually very similar to Soojin's dad who also uses intimidation and physical violence to keep his daughter in line. If we put the same background music for the scenes where we see Jukyung's Mom threatening her, as the ones where Soojin's dad abuses her, they'd practically be identical. The only difference is that the show often plays Jukyung's Mom's behavior as a joke.

In episode 7, after seeing that Jukyung didn't improve as much as she wanted her to, she actually threw away all her makeup. Even though Jukyung did try, and did improve, it still wasn't enough for her mom. Jukyung's restlessness after not seeing her makeup on her table was palpable through the screen. Finding out that her mother threw all her makeup away sort became her breaking point. We see her yell at her mother and express her feelings for the first time.

I think it's important to note that Jukyung, who's already finds it very tough to reach out to her courageous side, was inspired by this incident to stand up to her mom, to express her outrage. Saying that makeup meant a lot to her is an understatement.

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Act 4: "What's the point of looking beautiful with all that makeup on if you're ugly underneath?" -- Verbal Abuse.

We all get into arguments with our parents from time to time, and I’m sure we’ve all been yelled at by them at some point. Verbal abuse however, is not something that is normal, and the two shouldn’t be confused. A parent who constantly humiliates their child, yells and screams at them, talks down on them is in simple terms, an abuser. 

In episode 1, when Jukyung tries makeup on for the first time and goes to school, she gets ridiculed by her bullies and her classmates. Crestfallen, she returns back home after school and goes to her mother for reassurance. Instead of providing that, her mother ridicules her even more and calls her makeup “Ghost Makeup”. This is something abusers often do. Under the guise of teasing the victim, they often attack the victim’s self esteem, appearance etc, to make them feel insecure and to maintain their position of power over them. Jukyung’s mother isn’t very different from those bullies who told Jukyung that she was ugly and made her feel like she could never amount to anything. 

Another example that irks me a lot is from episode 3, when Jukyung’s Mom is chewing her out for being late, and suddenly the conversation turns to cosmetics and makeup. This is also one of the traits of verbal abuse. Instead of arguments surrounding the basic issue, they branch out and turn into character assassination. Her mom accuses Jukyung of wasting all her time on makeup instead of studying, even when Jukyung clarifies that she got late because she missed her bus, not because she was out buying cosmetics. But her mom doesn't listen and says to her, “What’s the point of looking beautiful with all that makeup on when you’re still ugly underneath?” 

Jukyung’s face after hearing her own mother say that was heartbreaking. Unfortunately, this type of mother-daughter relationship dynamic isn’t something  that is rare. Mothers frequently project their own insecurities on their daughters and put them down. Jukyung’s Mother’s behavior explains her self esteem issues, it gives an insight about where her insecurities really stem from. Sometimes our abuser’s thoughts and image of us start maligning our own self image. Frequently hearing them tell us that we are worthless, and that no one will ever marry us or love us, makes us believe that we are in fact, worthless and incapable of being loved unless we change something about ourselves. We frequently get an insight into how Jukyung thinks of herself throughout the drama. 

“It’s not my fault that I was born dumb” (In episode 7, after finding out that her mother threw away her makeup.)

“You know that I’m messed up” (In episode 2, referring to her face, while asking Lee Suho to keep her bare face a secret)

The drama is yet to end so I don’t want to completely write Jukyung’s Mother off as an abuser. I hope she becomes a better mom in the show, I really do. Because Jukyung deserves a loving mother. And Jukyung's mom does in fact have a few redeeming qualities, however, simply love and caring isn’t enough, you need mutual respect, reassurance and effort in each every relationship. We know that Jukyung’s mother is also often labelled as an ugly woman, and she believes that she could only get by through studying well. (“It’s going to be okay as long as you study well” - episode 1). In a world where a woman either has to a exceptionally beautiful to be considered worthy, or be exceptionally intelligent and professional lest she isn’t blessed by beauty, it’s very easy to internalize self hatred and direct it on to other individuals (especially if those individuals are your children). That is why i genuinely find myself rooting for Jukyung’s mother and hoping for a character development arc -- because i understand where she comes from, and because i can empathize with her. 

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Fin.

[mistmiyuki]

My thoughts on Orca

**SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE IDWTKOH WEBCOMIC** 

I used to love Orca because the story wasn’t finished the first two times i read through it. So I understandably bought into the idea he was a kind person because he seemed reluctant to kill people and seemed to only do it because of his circumstances at Knife. So when I skipped to the ending before the English release and saw Orca was killed it made me kinda depressed. 

But honestly having read the ending in English his death made total sense and I didn't even feel that bad for him. The author did a great job making the villains sympathetic but not redeemed.

I like that Samchon could rationalise why Orca was still a bad person despite him always saying he doesn't want to kill others throughout the story.

Guineung said Orca only kept him alive after not killing him as children because it was like Orca was reminding himself that he was human with empathy and remorse every time he saw the panda.

I believe the reason he feels this way about Guineung specifically is because he reminds Orca of the person he could have been and the life that he could have lived if he was saved by a hero instead. He can look at Guineung and think, “I am good too, I’m just unfortunate, it’s not my fault.” 

It makes sense he would want a way to feel less guilt for killing people, but at the same time this mindset stops him from actually taking responsibility for his actions. 

I appreciate Guineung for making me realise that Orca’s attitude was quite self-centered in that he cares more about feeling guilty then he actually does about people’s lives. 

He only blames others, and does not try to better his situation by running away or refusing to kill. He could have been a good person, but he chose not to, even if he cannot be fully blamed for making that decision as a traumatized child. 

What I like about Samchon’s writing is that they show that everything is not black and white, while actually exploring this grey zone (which is done with Naga, Dune, and Naga’s Dad around chapter 39 as well which is why I love that chapter).  

All the details are laid out for the readers, and it is up to us to interpret that information to decide who we think is right. I love having my opinion changed all the time about who I think is sympathetic and what the best cause of action could be! It causes me to feel sad thinking of the possibilities for what Orca's life could have been as a sweet and kind kid, but still makes sure to emphasize that killing people is unacceptable.

Basically Samchon owns my soul now for writing such interesting and complex characters.  (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

[gentlemen-i-am-fucked]

UnOrdinary - Who's the Hero?

So I see that "When the main character is the villain and the antagonist is the hero" post (you know the one, the one with John and Arlo) every time i look into the UnOrdinary tag - I suppose that's due to the fact that it's a popular post about UnOrdinary - and I disagree with that statement.

So obviously, I had to talk about it, in a new, less relevant post to avoid derailing.

Anyhow!

The way I see it, neither John or Arlo are "heroes" - and I use the term loosely here, to mean "a person with a morally good stance". I get what this post is trying to convey, that John is a chaotic bastard who does shit for his own gain only, and that Arlo, who's been an antagonist to John since Day 1 actually has a "greater good" kind of reasoning for his actions, and wants to protect people from John.

The problem with this line of logic, though, is that it implies that Arlo acts in a morally good manner, when he simply doesn't. He's just as self-centred as John, he just expresses it in a different way. Whilst John seeks to upset the heirarchy and destroy the status quo in his quest to fulfil his selfish desires, Arlo indulges his equally selfish motivations by using the heirarchy to his advantage. He's the King, the strongest student, and everyone knows it, so he has recognised power withing the heirarchy, which he abuses. He saw someone not fitting into the heirarchy and fixated on making that person's life miserable. Arlo is more Lawful Evil, whilst John, who hides behind a mask and attacks at random, is more Chaotic Evil.

If John is the terrorist of Wellston, then Arlo is the corrupt politician (I'd even go as far as to call him a dictator).

In the end, the protagonist isn't the villain, and the antagonist isn't the hero. They're both the morally reprehensible products of a society in which this messed up heirarchy denotes how much worth you even have as a human being.

Right now, narratively, Arlo seems to be leaning more in the direction of "hero" because at the moment, his stance involves people not getting hurt, whilst John's is "I'm gonna beat the shit out of everyone". John is very clearly coded as a villain, but that doesn't automatically make his oppoment the hero. Arlo has done some fucked up shit in his time (pretending to befriend John only to lure him into what was supposed to be a no-holds-barred torture session springs to mind), and currently his stance is preferable because he thrives on order, which doesn't typically mesh well with the types of extensive beatings John is anonymously dishing out.

John is chaos. Arlo is order. They're both incredibly selfish, manipulative, and callous individuals, neither of whom seem to be capable of feeling any kind of empathy towards people other than people close to them (come to think of it, both Arlo and John seem to be written as sociopaths, actually), least of all towards people lower down in the heirarchy.

If I had to pick a "hero"-esque character (actually, characters) in UnOrdinary, it'd be Blyke, Isen, and Remi. These three are motivated by a genuine desire to help people, do better, and prevent needless casualties, even though it means putting their life on the line, and nobody asked them to do it. Even if their motivations started out selfishly, they went past that and acted in genuine altruism, in my opinion.

So yeah, neither John or Arlo are the heroes of UnOrdinary, they're both too self-absorbed to even conceptualise the notion of empathy.

[faeriejukyung]

the webcomic jungle juice has lately been ranking high on the list of my current hyperfixations. while reading it, i came across this scene, where the mc is fighting a fellow student during his college course registration (students are supposed to fight each other off during course registrations at Nest) -

i genuinely thought, "oh god he's gonna leave him to die oh fuck oh dear god"

i guess i was expecting some sort of a corruption arc, because the webtoon repeatedly talks about the theme of "survival of the fittest". being popular at school/college is referred to as "being at the top of social food chain", the students at Nest are made to fight each other off in order to register for their preferred courses, and in order to survive you have to be the strongest. the series is called "Jungle Juice" for a reason.

i thought, that this scene was going to be the point where the mc's corruption arc starts, where he starts abandoning his humanity and truly becomes a creature of the jungle.

however, what he does is that he completely surprises me and pulls a complete 180°-

instead of leaving the kid to die, he clings on to his humanity, fighting off his animalistic instincts. this theme of humanity is brought up by him later in the series, too.

his simple act of choosing humanity was so impactful and refreshing to me. the main character of jungle juice seems really promising, i'm very excited for this series to progress. :)

[gentlemen-i-am-fucked]

So... I have mixed feelings about this chapter.

On the one hand, everything’s been cleared up! Where everyone stands has been flat-out stated so that all readers can be on the same page. John is very clearly not a good guy anymore, no matter how sympathetic he was in the past, and trying to argue that he’s not is just wishful thinking at this point.

On the other hand... I’m not too happy with this new direction. John was quite clearly set up to be a sympathetic protagonist, powers be damned, and he was a good one. He had in the past fallen victim to an unhealthy mindset and become a toxic person, which he had recovered from to become more healthy and willing to work constructively towards a better society. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the flashbacks he shares with Sera - he singlehandedly convinced her to reject the trappings of a toxic society. That arc is extremely cathartic to read as a result.

All in all, John was great. He was easy to root for and feel for, and his struggle seemed so organic - he could have just shown off and become king of Wellston, but instead he recognised his weaknesses and played to his strengths, trying to create reform from the ground up, even if it mean he had to sacrifice a great deal of personal comfort and get socially ostracised and beaten up every day.

There’s a reason John at the beginning of the story we so compelling, and that was his motivation. He had recognised a failing and a shortcoming in society, and he was willing to do anything to fix it organically, rather than just jumping at it from a position of power like Rei did, and the superheroes did. These characters showed us why John’s organic approach was so essential in a society so opposed to change, and we respected John for his goals.

This was also a reason why the twist that John was a high-tier was so good - reliably, one who is oppressed will be looking to fight oppression, but John is made so much more interesting because he very specifically isn’t one of the oppressed group. In fact, he’s one of the elite. Everything he suffers, he suffers out of choice and not necessity. Sure, he may have experienced oppression previously (whilst researching John, Isen found records that before his second-year in Bostin, John was very lowly-ranked, perhaps even a true ‘cripple’), but he was very quick to shed that and embrace elite life when his true ability became apparent. Invariably, John at the beginning was an altruistic individual who had grown from his mistakes and decided he would give up everything he could have based on his ability - a high social standing, a universal respect, and a comfy life - in favour of trying to combat the hierarchy. This is what made his friendship with Sera so powerful and great - he worked for it, and worked to help her break out of a toxic mindset like he had done. It’s why Arlo’s betrayal hurts so much - John offered olive branches, tried to make Arlo see that there was a better way, and yet Arlo still looked at him and saw someone to be taken down.

This is why I took such a dislike to the Joker arc. It took everything impressive and compelling about John’s character and took the tipp-ex to it like gritty live-action reebok would have done. The fact that John’s character was boiled down to “lol AGRESSIVE EDGY WHITE BOI” was in part frustrating because we’d specifically seen him grow past this, goddamn it, and because it took away everything that made him so compelling.

Now, we have other characters - namely Remi, Blyke, and Isen - stepping in to fill the role of Plucky Heroes Working to Better Society, with Remi specifically following a similar trajectory to John at the beginning of the story.

Just one problem.

If this was the story that wanted to be told, why did we spend 100+ episodes on John’s character arc, which was erased with the purchase of one (1) mask and some very bad decisions? If Remi was supposed to be the ubiquitous hero, then why didn’t we also start with her as the protagonist? If John was supposed to become an evil dickbag and a villain, why didn’t he start out as a thinly-veiled dickbag who played with others and manipulated them because he wanted to watch the world burn, instead of a sympathetic protagonist who suddenly does a 180?

I know it sounds like I’m bashing unordinary - and that’s not my intention, I really do love the comic, and Remi, Blyke and Isen, I would die for - but this complete butchery of John’s character vexes me to no end, precisely because he was so compelling.

Right now, it seems that the Joker arc is being salvaged, and things are being clarified after the muddle that had thrown the status quo into a cell and mangled it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to shake up the status quo - but the way it was done here also twisted the characters, making it seem like the story was driving them instead of the other way round.

I feel this like from Isen sums it up.

If someone had told me this about John before the Joker arc, I’d have asked them which dark AU this was from. Now, it fits John’s character, but at the same time, John’s character no longer fits him as we knew him. He’s spiralled into anarchy and chaos with seemingly very little reason - sure, Arlo had him beaten up and Sera was picked on after she lost her ability - but given that he’d been taking this shit on the chin and wearing it, that shouldn’t have been enough to make him go full dark side!

However, I do feel the story has taken on a direction I’m more on board with; namely, that students are taking responsibility and trying to better their society. Even so, I still feel a little sad about what we lost. I enjoyed Remi’s line about John, and it’s satisfying to see her recognise that John’s not just some Edgy but Saveable Good Boi UwU (looking at you, Kyle Ron), but still, the wording was a little bittersweet.

I, for one, would have loved it if that were true.