Tbh not only are we only relying on one side of tge narrative but I have a feeling that Haesoo is an unreliable narrator.
Ok just because joowon may have had his reasons for treating Haesoo a certain way does not mean that Haesoo's feelings and point of view are unreliable or invalid. If someone did something that hurt you but they had their reasons does the hurt magically go away? No it does not we might have an understanding of the situation but the pain is still there. You can cheer for joowon without invalidating Haesoo's feelings.
I am not invalidating Haesoo's feeling. "Unreliable narrator" is a term in literature that I was referring to.
More often than not, authors purposefully show us one side of the story, from a character's POV and we only see things the way the characters portray it to us.
As humans, it is natural that narrability is blurred by feelings.
I don't know if the author is actually using the particular writing device, that's why I said I have a "feeling" that Haesoo is an unreliable narrator.
to clarify what they meant, everyone on this earth is an unreliable narrator. memories get blurry and colored by newer memories, new perspectives, feelings, etc. its not calling Haesoo himself unreliable or intentionally misleading, we are seeing the events through his eyes. but if we look at the events through Joowon's eyes, we'd see something else. and if we looked at those same events with omniscient eyes, it'd be different from Haesoo's and Joowon's perspectives. thats just the nature of things, no such thing as a reliable human narrator. i find this an incredible tool when writers incorporate it into their stories, it makes our reactions as readers so much more realistic (as if Haesoo were a friend and actually telling us his side of the story in real life). i do not believe this invalidates Haesoo's feelings or pov, in fact, it makes me even more sympathetic to him because it makes the memories and his current feelings that much more sad and painful for himself (that he was hurt so much).
well yes we are only seeing haesoo’s side and what he remembers the most which is true but im just saying that his manipulative mannerisms didnt just stem from thin air and whether he got it from being with their family or something that happened before the remarriage we just dont know yet
Haesoo is a rather gray character, and I really like him a lot.
I do believe the same thing as you.
Haesoo is undeniably insecure and most of his insecurities has different reasons. He tends to not get attached to his lovers and leaves them before they can leave him and hurt him. That seems to be due to, unquestionavly, Joowon.
His insecurity regarding his writing is also somewhat apparent. No one really appreciated it before. And he seems to be stuck in the criticisms of it being repetetive.
His insecurity with his face is something I don't know will be touched in the future and it's confusing because he does seem to get complimented on it a lot.
Emotionally, he tends to not give too much of him to others, it could be due to family, negligence from Joowon and perhaps even family and a lot more.
He also seems to be insecure about his career, which could also have a variety of reasons, perhaps dissatisfaction with his current job, childhood unfulfilled dreams, constant nagging to join tge family business from his mother, his book publishers pulling out at the last moment, comparisons with how his "brother" is doing so well already.
He has a lot on his plate.
And Joowon keeps coming back whenever he wants and goes away, without clearly defining their relationship, which is already bad but in a complicated relationship like theirs it is even more so. It may make him feel disgusted of himself, like he's just a toy to play with when bored and throw away when inconvenient.
A lot of his insecurities seem to originate from Joowon, though there are few which come from elsewhere.
But the same logic as the one you presented where his mannerisms didn't spring out from nowhere could be applied to Joowon.
All I'm saying is that I am agreeing with how you opened the topic thread, the way Joowon said that the happiest time was when the four of them were living together makes me question the story more.
We all know that mind games are being played, both Joowon and Haesoo are playing the game, both Haesoo and Joowon know which strings to pull. And while Haesoo seems to get the worse end of it, we still don't know the other side of the story.
And Haesoo notoriously doesn't seem to say what's on his mind and he's a lot more ruder to Joowon than Joowon ever is.
It doesn't make invalidate the times Joowon has been a jerk and very obnoxious and just bad, but we don't know Joowon's side of the story. That was what I meant.
Wow, that was beautifully explained.
you provided a very thorough and intriguing explanation and it was very fun to read, thank you
im kind of getting ideas but i dont know whether they are true or not? joowon said that the happiest time of his life was when the four of them lived together but we only see scenes from that time of joowon manipulating haesoo and haesoo’s mother catching them, even slapping the crap out of joowon?? maybe he had a bad childhood? he wasnt even fazed by the slap actually— not that any of this justifies his actions, just that i feel like theres deeper that we have yet to see