This Blog Hates Donald Trump

no thoughts, head empty, only the devil judge ost playing in the background

The way that if you think hard enough about this, Gaon’s reaction to Yohan’s death could totally be interpreted as a parallel to how he perceives the deaths of his parents (one dies first and the other immediately follows)…

It is not like that with Suhyeon for him. It is, in fact, like that with Yohan though.

Can you please explain the part whereby Gaon said soohyun was his world, and how that doesn't mean he loves her despite the confession.?

Hey Anon!!

I poured out the bulk of my thoughts in this post here! But in essence, Soohyun to Gaon is as Isaac to Yohan (which Writer Moon Yoo Seok confirmed in this post). He definitely loved her; there's no denying that, but that love was very different from what he feels for Yohan. The latter was so all-encompassing and wild, and painful that after Cha Kyunghee's death, which itself harkens back to Gaon's parents' death, our man ran to what was familiar and soft and comfortable, all of which Soohyun represented to him.

He was swept up in a maelstrom of emotion: all the death, the Foundation nabbing people, Soohyun not wanting to talk to him. He was essentially adrift and he can't be faulted for latching onto the only anchor he's had since childhood. But even with those flashback scenes of them as children, what we see is Soohyun playing more of a caregiver role than anything else. She blows on his scrapes, he comforts him when he's sad. She might as well be his sister or his mother, because she truly is his Isaac.

On top of everything, Gaon was under the false belief that Soohyun rescued him from the thugs when it was really Yohan, all that gratitude, and his need for comfort, and the fact that she came back for him despite being angry with him, manifested in him confessing emotions that were long dead if he was being honest with himself.

But Gaon was too confused to be honest with himself and he just didn't want to think at that point. So he didn't.

But at the end of the day. Gaon brought a knife to avenge Soohyun and a bomb to avenge Yohan. Gaon tried to die for Yohan twice.

Gaon's reaction when Yohan was announced as dead is so so telling. While Sunah collapses, he's silent, frozen, then he leaves, because he knows he'll be joining Yohan in death.

And even when Yohan's alive, when Gaon no longer has reason to be guilty anymore, he still wants to die with Yohan because it's better than living without him. Soohyun might have had a pretty confession, and a wooden kiss (really wooden) but Yohan won in the end, because by word and deed, Kim Gaon vowed before all of Korea that he would die with his Chief.

Plus when he thought Yohan was gone for the second time, he went through Yohan's bedroom and reminisced about them ogling each other. That's gay. We love to see it!!

RED LIGHTS || ESCAPE

Whatever Matt Stone is doing with Kyle is the opposite of healing your inner child. Giving your inner child AIDS. Putting your inner child in a migrant detention camp. Sewing your inner child into a human centipede. Like whats going on with you man do you need to talk to someone

the way TDJ approaches gender is SO interesting to me.

soohyun as the female love interest with a more traditionally masculine approach to problems (trying to take things on personally to keep gaon away from hardship, fighting with physical violence, literally being a cop) vs. gaon as the male main character with a more “feminine” take on the world (nurturing his plants and the prople around him, protective of children and the weak, how his work is in his words and he is really only ever allowed to be physical about his rage by the man he’s closest to).

then there’s yohan, who’s just Man at his peak i feel (gun-wielding, broody, aggressive, dark and powerful and dangerous… but misunderstood and chivalrous and a provider at heart… mr Beast from the hit disney film type beat) vs. seon-a, who is the actual definition of an ambitious Woman (her power coming from being underestimated as a woman, and how she forcibly empowered herself through the circumstances of being taken advantage of for her girlhood).

and then there’s soohyun and yohan being in explicit competition with each other for gaon everytime they meet while gaon and seon-a passive aggressively battle away in yohan’s home. LMFAO. enough said on that one i feel.

Kim Gaon is the most female coded character ever

toxic codependent familial dynamics this. toxic codependent romances that. what about toxic codependent coworkers. i can’t do my job without this guy here or i’ll kill myself.

gaon as a character genuinely gets so little true agency of his own through the entire show, and it's something that he's clearly aware of and frustrated by. he's constantly presented with choices and ultimatums by those around him, his agency is continuously shot down and overruled by others, and despite how much he cares about each of them, every time it happens he ultimately demonstrates - intentionally or not - how much he hates that by immediately pushing back on whoever poses such limitation to him in the first place (re: soohyun telling him to stay back and let her handle digging into yohan's past -> gaon sneaking around yohan's house; min jungho pressing gaon to make his decision -> gaon siding with yohan; yohan telling him not to see soohyun if he wants to stay on his side -> gaon leaving the kangs).

in the end, all of those people are no longer actively in his life. he is alone and he must be independent, and it must make him feel so confllcted - that his having agency and free will is grounded in how those he cared for are unable to influence him anymore.

the only bright side of this is in kang yohan, who makes it clear through his actions in the end that he's consciously made the choice to give the agency back to gaon, to put the ball into his court. yohan chooses to take a step back, take his hands off, and let gaon choose what he does in rebuilding the system; he demonstrates his trust and faith that gaon will do it all well, teasing that he - a man "known" to be dead - will come back into the fray if gaon doesn't do a good job.

it must be so bittersweet to be kim gaon.

Kim Gaon as a character is so important to me.

This poor boy, whose parents committed suicide when he was so young, ends up being manipulated by almost everyone in his life who think they know what's best for him.

His mentor, who he saw as a father ends up manipulating him to further his own agendas and goals all while giving him the illusion of choice. Ga On has never truly had a choice.

And Soohyun too. Yes, she only ever wanted to keep him safe, and that is a nice sentiment, but in acting the way she did towards him she caged him in.

Maybe it's the Gemini in me, but if someone tries to limit my freedom of choice or influence my judgement in any way, I start to get suffocated. No matter what the sentiment behind their actions are. She didn't deserve the end she got, and she genuinely cared about Gaon but at the same time she ended up trying to influence him because she thought she knew what was best for him.

And then comes Yohan. Yohan is complicated (as morally grey characters tend to be), because for a good while in the beginning, he too tries to use (or at least wants to use) Gaon for his own ends.

But also, after he sees who Gaon truly is: a kind and caring and a firecracker of a soul, he is the first in Gaon's life to offer him a choice. And not the Min Jungho type of choice where it's just an illusion; but an actual choice.

And Gaon. Gaon only ever tried to do what he thought was right even while being pulled in a thousand different directions by different people. He tried so hard to make the right choices. He finally found the family he lost when he was young in Yohan and Elijah and Ms Ji. Lord knows I wouldn't survive if I found out that the fucker who drove my parents to suicide was living alive and well somewhere else with nothing on his conscience, and that I had been lied to for so long. And then, Soohyun, the last person who he has left from his past tied to his parents, his best friend, dies.

And then he loses his found family as well.

Kim Gaon, at the end of the show has absolutely no one left from his past; the Kangs, Soohyun, his parents and Min Jung ho are all gone.

All he has left is himself and a herculean task of rebuilding the justice system.

And how miserable must that be?

the most fun a girl can have is finding parallels, noticing patterns, making connections, contemplating

gaon choosing to return to yohan again and again even though he fundamentally disagrees with him while everyone is convinced (including the man himself) that yohan is just an unchangeable Monster is peak “i can fix him” but also it’s so painfully beautiful. a taste of true unconditional love for two men who probably only ever really felt loved as a condition to behaving for the people they cared for.

Monstrous Things will befall the writer for this

not to start problems on purpose but the scene where yohan throws gaon out of the room when he says he’d die with him in the explosion is SO!!!!! like knowing the ending it just adds so much to yohans reaction like HE knows he’s getting out of this alive and truly has no intention to kill himself but GAON doesn’t know that and still says ‘I am willing to die with you/for you’ like imagine yohans reaction to that in his head, not only realizing that gaon is actually that much in pain that he is actually willing to die, to kill himself, and that much devoted to him that he is willing to die WITH yohan. It makes him throwing him out all that much more meaningful, like he’s so determined to ensure he lives, telling him ‘you might not think your life is worth anything but it is you idiot and I won’t let you throw it away’ like he could’ve easily just told gaon that he was gonna get out of the explosion alive, but I feel like he wanted to ensure that gaon knew he wanted him to live, regardless of whether yohan was gonna survive or not. Anyway. Much To Think About. Sorry for bringing this up randomly lol just needed to vent it to someone

start all the problems on purpose, babe. be the yohan you need to be in your life!!!!!!! lmao

but i feel the same!!!!!!!!!!! that whole entire scene is just so gut-wrenching and full of emotions, especially when you realize that yohan is upset and tearing up just after he throws gaon out. he literally doesn’t want to but he’s doing it because gaon cannot die with him if he doesn’t actually live.

but with that said, also god i know…. yohan’s never really had anyone choose him, and this man comes to find him during a moment where it’s truthfully, a 50/50 shot whether yohan makes it out alive. gaon literally telling him i’m going with you, and yohan turns quickly but then schools his facial expression because obviously, he knows the plan, and he can’t say anything.

and i think that’s also why it’s another reason yohan kept it from gaon because if he’d told him and yohan actually died, then what, you know? imagine having that false hope that he’d make it out and yohan doesn’t keep that promise. plus, i’m pretty sure yohan was thinking of elijah in that moment, too, but gaon certainly wasn’t. yohan absolutely wanted gaon to live and to do it in a way that wasn’t interfered by yohan or the elite. yohan was clearing the stage whether he lived or died, and him being upset at gaon’s words just shows you how much he realized what gaon was promising.

as you said, it’s not gaon willing to die for yohan. he was willing to die WITH him, beside him, partners til the very end. and that is so damn profound.

currently rewatching the devil judge as i study for a populism and democracy final and i think my next step might just be writing a fic where gahan just Talk and Argue about everything i’ve gotten out of all 75 of the readings that i need to review for this class