Oh I love this take
nicely said.
Dude, I did a lot of paragraphs in my own topic for a thing you said in 3 paragraphs, I'm so happy that's certain people here understand, thank you
Absolutely agree with this take, honestly makes me wish I could jump into the comic and just teach him basic ethics He doesn't do the bad things he does it with bad intentions he's like a child with the power to kill, bro straight up needs someone to just sit down with him
So true. If someone could teach him all those fucked up rules, then he can definitely learn ethics and morals too. And, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up turning on his precious hounds by the end.
So basically we're just gonna ignore that he murdered a lot of people just because we think "he can change". I'm all for it but in real life, y'all are basically giving him "pretty privilege" and if he wasn't attractive, y'all would probably burn him at the stake. Ignorance excuses no one. He is fucked up and he has to pay for the consequences he did.
But since this is fiction
What the fuck is your point? Did you understand what was said?
First, we don't ignore the things Guwon did, you really didn't understand what was said here. Second, in real life, when a man kills someone because he does not understand the dominant and majority morality of our society, he is not judged in the same way. That's why there are mitigating circumstances and case laws. Third, yes, he must face the consequences of his actions, but how? He can't have harsh consequences as a person fully aware of their actions could have, because Guwon wasn't aware of our morality and the impact of his actions. And fourth, reduce our comments under the criticism of "you say that just because he is pretty" is an insult to our reflection as readers, an insult to the work of nuance and intrigue the author put in the BL and an insult to the real questions that this BL ask.
My whole point was to encourage thinking beyond black and white judgments. For example, stealing is a crime and in most places, it’s punishable. But why do we sympathize with the father who stole medicine for his child? Because we understand the emotional context and desperation behind his actions. Guwon doesn’t, so he simply kills him, because to him, stealing = crime = punishment. That’s the rigid, childlike logic he follows.
Similarly, murder is obviously a crime. But when Jinwoo and Gyeongha plan to kill Guwon, we’re more forgiving, because we understand the emotional and situational layers behind it. All I’m asking is for people to apply the same lens of empathy and context when analyzing Guwon. I’m not blindly defending or excusing anyone here.
And no, you won’t ever find a single comment from me saying, “He’s hot, he’ll change.” I’ve never once based my opinion on his looks. In fact, attractiveness is subjective….some people find him unattractive and still manage to understand the complexity of his character.
I know I might sound patronizing, but I find the people who instantly slap “red flag” or “villain” labels on characters to be exactly like Guwon, rigid, lacking nuance, and too focused on absolutes. That kind of oversimplification also exists on the opposite end, where people ignore subtler “red flags” and praise characters for doing the bare minimum, calling them “green flags”. Either way, it misses the point of character analysis entirely.
Womp womp
I think some of you are a little too obsessed with labeling characters as red flags, green flags, whatever. Not every character fits neatly into those categories, people (and characters) can be more complex than that.
Guwon hasn’t tortured anyone, hasn’t manipulated anyone. He is rigid in his worldview (a lot like the people who love sorting characters into “flag” boxes) but he’s consistent. He never enforces a rule on others that he doesn’t follow himself. Even during the trial, he punished himself first for not being cautious enough. If he ever needed medicine, I believe he’d rather suffer than break the rules he’s set. If it had been Jinwoo who stole the meds, he’d have put him through the same trial, no favoritism, no exceptions. I’m not saying that makes him good or bad. I’m just saying his morality is very black and white. In his mind, stealing water to save a sick person still equals a punishable offense. He doesn’t have the emotional or social depth to weigh compassion or context because he doesn’t understand those things. We’ve already seen that he lacks basic understanding of nuance.
So before you judge him too harshly, maybe step back and consider that he’s not evil, he’s just deeply limited in how he sees the world.