I think it has to do with the respect towards elders and people older than you in asian culture. Like from my personal experaince, even though im half filipino and not korean, we have to be respectful towards our elders and if like you do smth rude its veerrry disrespectful and looked down upon...but then theres ppl like the shit sunbae here who abuse that "heiarchy" of power and yeah :/
I'm vietnamese and its like that in our culture too. Ours, at least from what I experienced can also be rlly sexist :/ where women have to do the stereotypical role of being a house wife and etc. So guys have that 'power' and even more so if their older.
I think its a "respect your elder/ older age people" kinda thing in korea and theyre abusing that respect. Younger people dont really argue much with their elders because of respect but sometimes they cannot refuse shit which is dumb as fuxk
Honestly. I've seen this in too many manhwas that I don't believe it's just a trope anymore and that this is actually the reality. So, please someone help me understand. How the heck do 'sunbae's in Korea have so much fucking power?