i quite liked wook, he was one of my fave characters here for sure, but then the author had to go and do a whole like... cop thing? and totally ruin his character? it would be completely fine if he was just a cool dude that was also brave and strong with a good moral compass, he could have other motivations like firefighter or dad or idk, but his whole deal is that he's... a cop? and that's why he's brave and strong and has to protect people? god it made me laugh out loud while reading. i don't know much about the police force in south korea, but here in europe, the idea that the police stand for anything but corruption and abuse of power feels pretty disconnected from reality. and in this it's used as a short hand for bravery and shit. and god, don't even get me started on the whole 'maybe humans are the real monsters' convo that was taken up when the criminals showed up. yeah, just dehumanize the prison population, sub-human psychopaths the whole lot of them, huh? never mind that most crime actually originate from poverty, poor infrastructure and classism, not because everyone that's comitted a crime is, you know, inhuman. just like the cop thing, here being a criminal was being used as a short-hand for being a horrible monster of a person, once again not reflecting reality in the slightest. of course when the criminals show up all they want is to kill, steal, rape and lie. let the good, poor police officer that was fired because apparently the police actually care about not hurting citizens (since when?) take care of them! poor wook, police brutality is good and perfectly moral actually!
well rant over. other than some shaky themes and mildly questionable female rep that i'm not gonna get into, it's not a bad manhwa at all. i read it because i was a big fan of bastard a couple years ago, and i quite enjoyed a lot of this story! but this grievance kinda took me out of it. could've been better, but the overall theme of life being worth living was kinda nice. i just wanted to air out some thoughts.
i quite liked wook, he was one of my fave characters here for sure, but then the author had to go and do a whole like... cop thing? and totally ruin his character? it would be completely fine if he was just a cool dude that was also brave and strong with a good moral compass, he could have other motivations like firefighter or dad or idk, but his whole deal is that he's... a cop? and that's why he's brave and strong and has to protect people? god it made me laugh out loud while reading. i don't know much about the police force in south korea, but here in europe, the idea that the police stand for anything but corruption and abuse of power feels pretty disconnected from reality. and in this it's used as a short hand for bravery and shit. and god, don't even get me started on the whole 'maybe humans are the real monsters' convo that was taken up when the criminals showed up. yeah, just dehumanize the prison population, sub-human psychopaths the whole lot of them, huh? never mind that most crime actually originate from poverty, poor infrastructure and classism, not because everyone that's comitted a crime is, you know, inhuman. just like the cop thing, here being a criminal was being used as a short-hand for being a horrible monster of a person, once again not reflecting reality in the slightest. of course when the criminals show up all they want is to kill, steal, rape and lie. let the good, poor police officer that was fired because apparently the police actually care about not hurting citizens (since when?) take care of them! poor wook, police brutality is good and perfectly moral actually!
well rant over. other than some shaky themes and mildly questionable female rep that i'm not gonna get into, it's not a bad manhwa at all. i read it because i was a big fan of bastard a couple years ago, and i quite enjoyed a lot of this story! but this grievance kinda took me out of it. could've been better, but the overall theme of life being worth living was kinda nice. i just wanted to air out some thoughts.