I regained access to this blog so now I'm both here and @weakhero-diaries. I will post alternately from both so that Tumblr doesn't think that I'm a spammer (yes they told me that they thought so). Thank you!
NEW SETS: Weak Hero Character Name Meanings (Korean) ~ LITERAL & METAPHORICAL ~ Part 1
I was in a bit of a somber mood after the ending so I made yet another set of character name meanings (Korean). If you notice the differences from my previous edits it's because I had since learned a little bit more about naming culture in China, Japan, and Korea. Enjoy!
SPOILERS ALERT - Last Episode Reaction (Rant Part 2)
Tw: DEPRESSION, SUICIDE
Nah.. it turns out that for the sake of my blood pressure, I had to make two rant posts in a row.
Thank you, Seopass-jakkanim for writing and creating this wonderful work with Kim Jinseok-nim, but I'm sorry that I can't be lenient about the less pleasing parts. So here is my reaction and long rant part 2 (not that you two writers or anyone would care, but I had to vent). I also included the pleasing parts at the end of the post.
First, you developed the characters' backgrounds in such a meticulous and detailed way and now you've abandoned them, or so I heard, to move on to another work. I mean gosh GOSH. Thank you for creating them BUT NO, THANK YOU for abandoning their proper arc resolutions. What would Sehan / Forrest and the others do? What would Jihoon / Jimmy do? Why are you left them stranded? Who exactly is Seongje / Wolf?
I appreciate that you tried to highlight the issues on young males' mental health problems by writing one character as suicidal (YES IT WAS HINTED THAT BAEKJIN / DONALD WAS SUICIDAL THAT NIGHT, WELL GUESS WHAT, IT WASN'T WRITTEN REALLY CLEARLY, WAS IT? Hmph) and another as depressed (SIEUN /GRAY, WHO ELSE) BUT you don't do that in a swoosh kind of way. No matter if they're suddenly reunited with their crush or best friend or whoever. What the hell was that? Show them being encouraged, show them opening up.
You introduced juvenile crimes and adult crimes into the plot and it's good, but now it's come to nothing. Why were they inserted into the story in the first place? To emphasize Baekjin's cruelty? As if school violence cases alone isn't enough? You could've just highlighted the school violence aspect. Now that part of the plot is left unresolved.
I understand why you make Seokhyeon / Kingsley so obsessed and that he has now dragged Dongha and Seongmok into this, who didn't look very happy or pleased about it. I MEAN PLEASE LET THEM GO? I know that they did wrong but they were minors and this is fiction, fgs.
You make sure that friendship is one of the key themes of the story but after that death, everything comes to a standstill. Is that it? Is that the point? But why, when your characters are minors with their future ahead of them? Why deny Seokhyeon, Dongha and Seongmok future too, when this is fiction and you're in a hurry to wrap things up for Sieun, Suho and the others?
Well I must be fair that there are good things in the last episode, though. These are them.
Hakho / Jake who found closure with himself and moving on to take care of Gwangseok /Kenny
Suho being okay although it doesn't seem that he's gone back to school (again, a reality with many bullying survivors).
The kids went to meet Suho / Stephen together with Sieun to Donghae area. No school trip scene, though. Everything is cut.
Jihwan (Sieun's old friend) being surprised that the monster Baku/Big Ben is Humin and is all smiley.
And he was so shocked that the famous White Mamba a.k.a Baeksa (the White Snake of Legend) is none other than Sieun. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Well there you go. It's been a wild ride and I still have some more stuff to post (lighter, happier ones). For now, ciao.
HAISSH. It's so unsatisfying. It smells like spinoff bait. I can smell the kdrama tactics on this.
I mean the kids are okay (Sieun / Gray is like BAM! SUDDENLY okay). Except for Seokhyeon / Kingsley, who sadly is still too obsessed to let go. Suho / Stephen is okay, but too many things are left unanswered and skipped.
Whenever I say that Taeoh (Teddy)'s and recent Jimmy (Jihoon)'s development are my faves, I seem to forget Pilyoung's. This dude's development is so ahead of the curve. He, unbeknowst to himself, had been steadily gaining the respect of his former enemies: the thing that he used to look for in the past.
Well, to my understanding, during the Dorim street scene (when Hyuntak / Gogo found him crying in an alley), he realized that it wasn't the cool privilege that Pilyoung was looking for. It was the sense of belonging in something, as if Baekjin (Donald) was a friend. So it was genuine friendship tears. And for that reason, I feel for Pilyoung.
Whenever I say that Taeoh (Teddy)'s and recent Jimmy (Jihoon)'s development are my faves, I seem to forget Pilyoung's. This dude's development is so ahead of the curve. He, unbeknowst to himself, had been steadily gaining the respect of his former enemies: the thing that he used to look for in the past.
Questionable Takes on the Later Chapters that I Want to Discuss
1. "Juntae (Eugene) ruined Baekjin (Donald)'s chance to have nice things."
I love Baekjin like everyone else but Baekjin, while being that cool dude who was hella good at fighting AND a poor abused kid, was ALSO a juvenile criminal. He ruined people's livelihood. No I'm not talking about those unethical adults, but honest business owners like Juntae's aunt and others. What did they do to deserve being harrassed? Juntae was only trying to do something to help them.
Baekjin deserved to have nice things but don't blame Juntae for his losses. He sent his underlings to kill Juntae and we don't even know yet whether Juntae survive his injuries or not.
2. "Baekjin was not supposed to be angry lol. What Eugene did didn't ruin him."
It did ruin him.
I blame it on the vague explanations by Seopass, but to remedy our shared lack of understanding please spend some time to read Korean laws first since this story concerns real cases.
The fine would've been huge. Or Baekjin would've been jailed. As a minor, there would've been additional hard labor and community services in the name of "protective measures". Doing these things would've been EXTREMELY humiliating for him, who was forced to do child labor before.
Also with no possibility of expunction of his criminal records Baekjin would've found it hard to rebuild his credibility. He would have to start from scratch.
3. "Baekjin was so emo in these latter chapters he wasn't like himself. You all just cope by excusing bad writing."
Seopass' writing has its share of weaknesses (female characters being excluded from the narrative without any reasons, etc) BUT Baekjin's characterization is not it, imho.
Please accept that Baekjin's gang leader self is a mere persona that he was using to cope. Irl many juvenile criminals are like that. And there are narratives about them in the Korean media, if you look for them and are willing to devote your time to do so.
How Juntae Brought About Baekjin's Downfall: A Look at the Corruption Case
Seopass and Kim Jinseok had never clarified what EXACTLY Juntae (Eugene) did to make Baekjin (Donald) mad enough and want to kill him. I saw some people asking about this, so I'll try to explain based on what I studied about corruption in Asian context.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not an expert
First, what are Baekjin's corruption M.Os (modus operandi)?
Baekjin built a network with various businessmen who used to hire him and his gang for multiple dirty jobs.
They worked together to build multiple various false portofolio for fraudulent tenders that on first glance seemed legit (remember how he competed in a Math Olympiad and most likely other competitions too, just to build a credibility for Yeoil High on paper?)
This network harrassed, coerced, and blackmailed other businesspeople to gain control on various business sectors.
The network also regularly bribed the city government (and its related agencies) by the dirty money and assets. So that the officials would turn a blind eye to the fraudulent tenders and help falsify the auditing results.
Since projects only fell to the hands of this dirty network, the members got rich pretty fast and they underhandedly invested more and more in new projects.
Second, what did Juntae actually do?
Juntae competed in an open competition for city infrastructure development. In such competitions, multiple prototypes are designed and then are submitted openly to the city government and related agencies.
The participants, including Juntae, didn't know that the city government and agencies were already in cahoots with Baekjin & co. They thought that their prototypes would be built for sure.
By mistake, the mayor approved and legalized Juntae's design, which ruined the network. Why was it ruined? You see, the members must've spent so much on underhanded investments in infrastructure projects, falsifying auditing results, bribing, wining and dining with officials, and scaring off people in business areas (it takes a lot to hire construction machines, workers, etc etc).
After Juntae's invention was approved, a real fair and honest tender and auditing had to be done. The past frauds would've been uncovered. If this happened, Baekjin, his network members and the city officials would've stood trial in the Criminal Court and would've been heavily fined, and/or jailed.
Juntae designed his prototype after interviewing the businessmen that Baekjin ruined. So there was a chance that, under the Korean laws, Juntae might testify in Baekjin & co's trials through a legal representative in absentia or in person (because he was a minor they would've had to determine whether he was a competent witness or not before summoning him).
Since it was publicized that Juntae's design was the winner, Baekjin saw him as a target. From then on, Juntae's life was in danger.
We see Baekjin's thoughts about tattoos in the flashback (chapter 258). I thought initially, the impression of strength he got from them would change his opinion down the line.
Then chapter 263 came out and I just got sad.
He deems tattoos disgusting. He still deems them disgusting, even after getting some and is about to get so many more.
After the first panel, I thought he would start to deem them something less negative. But he doesn't. He is disgusted by them, he most likely doesn't even care about the motives. He gets them to make reaching his goal easier and that is just so damn sad.
I now also feel really sad about how much I liked the tattoos design wise. They look pretty good. But the knowledge that he hates them despite covering so much of his body is soul crushing.
A. WHY BAEKJIN (DONALD) MUST DIE: THE SOCIAL PROTEST AND THE LAWS (for the counter-argument, please read point B).
Disclaimer: I'm not a Korean lawyer and I'm sorry for any mistakes.
The thing is, I understand that this webtoon is a social protest medium mixed with the action genre. I'd suspected that this was the case since early on, when Sieun (Gray)'s backstory was revealed. I Googled and found that there were kids whose fates mirror Suho (Stephen)'s. And there are other real cases that the webtoon included too.
These cases are probably just the tip of an iceberg. I'm sure that Seopass and Kim Jinseok know so, so much more about their social problems than I do. Through the webtoon, I can sense that they hope to make strong statements. "Our child welfare policies are bad". "The bullying problem is a national epidemic". "Our urban development plans are harmful to the society". "There's something wrong with our educational system". Etc etc.
In this lens, Baekjin (Donald) must die for the statements to be impactful. His demise as a complex character will probably matter, especially since this webtoon has quite a following and a new adaptation is coming.
Since the webtoon is serious about child welfare, I'll try to take it seriously when it comes to real juvenile criminal proceedings. I'd since learned that had his crimes been uncovered, and had Baekjin survived and made a full recovery, he would've possibly stood trial in the Criminal Court, instead of in the Family/Juvenile one. Because he was a genius head of a criminal organization, he would've been considered competent in the eyes of the law.
Baekjin's crimes are severe. Theft, breaking and entering, destruction of property, tampering with evidence, assault and battery, corruption, blackmail, extortion...you name them. Baekjin woul've ended up in prison for some of his crimes, (maybe for 2-4 years or more, depending on how the prosecution and the court see his mitigating circumstances as an abused and abandoned kid) and he would've been heavily fined for the others.
Afaik there's no total expunction of criminal records in South Korea. Even though 5 years after he was released the records could be deleted from public view, the law enforcement officers could still access them until he died. Undoubtedly, this would've created difficulties for Baekjin to apply to universities, colleges, and to look for jobs. Barred from many opportunities, the future would've been bleak for Baekjin and he might've turned into a reoffending criminal.
Perhaps it was better for him to die.
B. WHY BAEKJIN (DONALD) SHOULDN'T HAVE DIED: THE FUNCTION OF FICTION
In spite of my understanding, to say that I was flabbergasted from Baekjin's death is an understatement. I was reeling from the shock. I know that he's a fictional character but there's even a research on how the human brain can sympathize with both fictional characters and real human beings.
So, in my brain, Baekjin is both that relentless juvenile criminal and the downtrodden kid whose life was cut short.
Baekjin deserved to live. To make amends, and be great friends with the Eunjang and Union kids, and other people outside of those circles.
He deserved to go to karaoke and scream from the top of his lungs with those friends. To play online and arcade games. To play basketball, soccer, or baseball. To read and rant about animes, novels, mangas, and webtoons. To have his life read in Tarot. To eat at random roadside food stalls. To go to cinemas, make some noise and be shushed at. Or to use a friend's streaming account and refuse to pay the bills. To sing and dance at school festivals.
He'd probably never have been able to go to a decent university if this was real life but since this is fiction, why wasn't he allowed to go to a local university and rant about his know-it-all professors? Why was he not allowed the chance to doze off in early morning classes like any other kids, being glued together by a bazillion cups of coffee (yes I still remember that cute fanart)?
Why was he not given the opportunity to present a new Math formula, and receive an echoing standing ovation afterwards? That kid had never been appreciated in his life, fgs.
Didn't he deserve to get a job and whine about it while drinking, eating out, and logging in to online spaces like the rest of us? And maybe someday he would've even dated, get divorced, raised kids, or stayed single forever and traveled the world.
We'd never know.
Why, why, when life's already tough on real juvenile delinquents and criminals, must it be made tough on a fictional one? Doesn't fiction exist not only as a medium of protest but also as an entertainment and a catharsis?
Thanks for reading that rambling rant. I'm glad that you agree with me. In this paragraph
I wrote the things that the Eunjang kids and the Union execs and members did, and some of my own embarrassing experiences. I wish Baekjin had the opportunity to live his life to the fullest.
A. WHY BAEKJIN (DONALD) MUST DIE: THE SOCIAL PROTEST AND THE LAWS (for the counter-argument, please read point B).
Disclaimer: I'm not a Korean lawyer and I'm sorry for any mistakes.
The thing is, I understand that this webtoon is a social protest medium mixed with the action genre. I'd suspected that this was the case since early on, when Sieun (Gray)'s backstory was revealed. I Googled and found that there were kids whose fates mirror Suho (Stephen)'s. And there are other real cases that the webtoon included too.
These cases are probably just the tip of an iceberg. I'm sure that Seopass and Kim Jinseok know so, so much more about their social problems than I do. Through the webtoon, I can sense that they hope to make strong statements. "Our child welfare policies are bad". "The bullying problem is a national epidemic". "Our urban development plans are harmful to the society". "There's something wrong with our educational system". Etc etc.
In this lens, Baekjin (Donald) must die for the statements to be impactful. His demise as a complex character will probably matter, especially since this webtoon has quite a following and a new adaptation is coming.
Since the webtoon is serious about child welfare, I'll try to take it seriously when it comes to real juvenile criminal proceedings. I'd since learned that had his crimes been uncovered, and had Baekjin survived and made a full recovery, he would've possibly stood trial in the Criminal Court, instead of in the Family/Juvenile one. Because he was a genius head of a criminal organization, he would've been considered competent in the eyes of the law.
Baekjin's crimes are severe. Theft, breaking and entering, destruction of property, tampering with evidence, assault and battery, corruption, blackmail, extortion...you name them. Baekjin would've ended up in prison for some of his crimes, (maybe for 2-4 years or more, depending on how the prosecution and the court see his mitigating circumstances as an abused and abandoned kid) and he would've been heavily fined for the others.
Afaik there's no total expunction of criminal records in South Korea. Even though 5 years after he was released the records could be deleted from public view, law enforcement officers would've still been able to access them until his death. Undoubtedly, this would've created difficulties for Baekjin to apply to universities and to look for jobs. Barred from many opportunities, the future would've been bleak for Baekjin and he might've turned into a reoffending criminal.
Perhaps it was better for him to die.
B. WHY BAEKJIN (DONALD) SHOULDN'T HAVE DIED: THE FUNCTION OF FICTION
In spite of my understanding, to say that I was flabbergasted from Baekjin's death is an understatement. I was reeling from the shock. I know that he's a fictional character but there's even a research on how the human brain can sympathize with both fictional characters and real human beings.
So, in my brain, Baekjin is both that relentless juvenile criminal and the downtrodden kid whose life was cut short.
Baekjin deserved to live. To make amends, and build great friendships with the Eunjang and Union kids, and other people outside of those circles.
He deserved to go to karaoke and scream from the top of his lungs with those friends. To play online and arcade games. To play basketball, soccer, or baseball. To read and rant about animes, novels, mangas, and webtoons. To have his life read in Tarot. To eat at random roadside food stalls. To go to cinemas, make some noise and be shushed at. Or to use a friend's streaming account and refuse to pay the bills. To sing and dance at school festivals.
He'd probably never be able to go to a decent university if this was real life but since this is fiction, why wasn't he allowed to go to a local university and rant about his know-it-all professors? Why was he not allowed the chance to doze off in early morning classes like any other kids, being glued together by a bazillion cups of coffee (yes I still remember that cute fanart)?
Why was he not given the opportunity to present a new Math formula, and receive an echoing standing ovation afterwards? That kid had never been appreciated in his life, fgs.
Didn't he deserve to get a job and whine about it while drinking, eating out, and logging in to online spaces like the rest of us? And maybe someday he would've even dated, got married, got divorced, raised kids, or stayed single forever and traveled the world.
We'll never know.
Why, why, when life's already tough on real juvenile delinquents and criminals, must it be made tough on a fictional one? Doesn't fiction exist not only as a medium of protest but also as an entertainment and a catharsis?
I have nothing against Seongje's Western name (Wolf) but tbh I will always prefer the name "Geum Seongje" because by the Hanja it means "gold emperor/supreme being" 😅😂.
Whoever named this kid must've been very cheeky.😂😂
Yeah the word "gold" is used because his surname "Geum" means "gold". I'd venture to say that the Korean team still wins in terms of cheekiness because irl there are people both named Wolff and Wolfe (both of which are variants of the name Wolf). But afaik the character 帝 (je) in Seongje's name has NEVER been used by commoners, just by kings or emperors or even mythical gods. 😂😂
ok because I have wolf keum brainrot and chapter263 reconfirmed that he was practically unknown, prior to his entry to the union- i just wanna know what his backstory is (asking for the hundredth time).
like, it's so off that someone like wolf, who gets into fistfights regularly, managed to remain inconspicuous throughout middle school, enough that most people didn't even know what he looked like prior to his union debut. he has pastel purple hair.
the only plausible explanation i can think of is that he wasn't getting into fistfights regularly in middle school, which is also weird because every flashback we have of him from then is of him fighting?
Reporting that I have no energy to go out this weekend. I mean yeah yeah I understand that this happens for a purpose (aka they want to make a point about child welfare) but I'M PAINED.
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