nb4 "dan's few moments of strength aren't meant to be key moments, he's not meant to become stronger!" i'd say to that: yes, and. yes dan is meant to endure suffering from jaekyung for the sake of the bit And he can/could’ve done so while still exhibiting a few more moments of strength. yes he may not have ever meant to be strong or become strong And him becoming weaker over time is still perfectly compatible with the groveling arc, while also giving him and jaekyung more complexity as characters. in fact, writing it like this provides more material for the groveling arc and strengthens it—there could be (or could've been) a moment where jaekyung reflects on the early stages of his relationship with dan, realizing that over the course of their "relationship," dan had lost the fight that had been present in those early stages, realize it's his fault, and come to feel deep remorse over it. he could end up reflecting on how his relationship with dan and the way he erodes people's psyches isn’t a singular thing but something that happens in almost all his relationships with other people and be driven to change because of it. so ╮(￣▽￣)╭
nb4 "dan isn’t meant to be strong or become strong, these weren't meant to be key moments!" to that i’ll only say yes, and. yes dan is meant to endure suffering from jaekyung for the sake of the bit And he can/could’ve done so while still exhibiting a few more moments of strength. yes he may not have ever meant to be strong or become strong And him becoming weaker over time is still perfectly compatible with the groveling arc we know the story is going to go on, while also giving him and jaekyung more complexity as characters. in fact, writing it like this provides more material for the groveling arc and strengthens it—there could be a moment where jaekyung realizes that the fight that dan used to have had eroded over the course of their "relationship" and feel deep remorse over it. he could end up reflecting on how his relationship with dan isn’t a singular thing but a consistent pattern of behavior he carries into all his relationships, and be driven to change because of it. so ╮(￣▽￣)╭
not the double post. shit was NOT loading i thought my initial addendum had been deleted. silly site.
I love your analysis and I hope that Dan really gets a development as a character..! I like Kim Dan a lot, he's a strong person who went through a lot and I just want to see him happy for once. Leaving aside the toxicity of jaekyung, I really want to know more about his character: from his childhood to his adulthood. Also, if I'm not wrong, the white haired guy teased something about jaekyung's past, right? I'm very impatient right now, I want to see what will happen in the next season!
...
Dude you're creeping the hell out of me
okay…then leave? lol
thank you, i'm glad you liked it!! i really hope dan gets some substantial development, too, and that he can find happiness. he is truly the embodiment of precious cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure. i would prefer if he found happiness outside of jaekyung but, alas...i suppose i could settle with an ending where jaekyung becomes a better person and treats him right.
we did get that teaser about jaekyung's past though i am curious...we will just have to see.
Uhmm... No? Lol
They weren't talking to you.
one can only hope minghwa has half of your literary talents
I promise you it's never this serious please tell me you have a life outside of writing essays for this horrible load of shit
omg so fucking real, doesnt matter what other people say but if mingwa did this id actuall read season 2
Fool your just mad that a normalized Mac is getting his shit together. I honestly believe that you people don’t think this is bad and just want to see Kim Dan getting fucked
i do actually! but that life does indeed consist of engaging with and thinking about and writing about other pieces of art (and doing other things too, of course) so don’t worry this is like enrichment for me
IM SO SORRY I DIDNT MEAN TO REPLY TO YOU , YOURE SO RIGHT I MEANT TO REPLY TO BRUH MOMENT
you did, don’t worry i was also replying to them :)
Did you even read what I said? I obviously said this is a load of shit and if you dislike it so much stop writing essays about it.. It's going to be months for this manga to get a seaskon 2 because of how fucked this thing is. Nobody wants to see him fuck, trust me we all want this to be over or discontinued. Don't paint me as a weirdo.
If you have a life outside of writing essays on stupid shit like this I suggest you spend your time on something that's actually worth it.
i genuinely can’t tell if you’re meaning to insult me or not, especially since it seems you dislike the webtoon and…well i can’t say i hate the webtoon myself, i don’t care enough about it personally to hate it, but i’m certainly very critical of it myself—in which case i don’t really understand why you would be invested in me not expressing said criticism…
but to clarify: this is worth it to me. i like analyzing stuff and understanding how/why it works, how/why it doesn’t work, and how it could be (or could’ve been) improved. it is of great benefit to me as a writer myself, and it’s just plain fun for me. things that have incredibly missed potential—things with interesting concepts but poor execution—tend to especially capture my attention, and to me, this webtoon fits that criteria. as a result, i have a lot of thoughts about it, and i’d like to get those thoughts out of my brain and put them somewhere, share them with people who have actually read the thing i’m talking about and who are themselves interested in this kind of thing. it’s okay if you don’t see the point or value in it! but this is my personal fun. so i’ll keep having fun here and i will also have fun doing other things, too! you can do many things in this life :)
Now I understand that for a lot of people, maybe even the author herself, Dan's purpose in this story is to be no more than a completely weak and helpless little baby bitch boy bottom who is to be fucked relentlessly and look pretty and cute while it’s happening—to be Jaekyung's punching bag and fucktoy until Jaekyung realizes that using people as punching bags and fucktoys (against their will) is bad, actually, and perhaps he should try being nice instead. As it stands, Dan fulfills those roles perfectly. Buuut. I think there is occasionally more to Dan than just being those two things, and much like how I think the webtoon could've/could benefit from leaning further into the abuse portrayed in it, I think it would've been/would benefit from the author leaning more into these moments when Dan rises above his status as a mere punching bag and fucktoy.
Dan and his love and care for others has been both a source of strength and weakness for him. Whenever he has a moment of strength in the webtoon, it’s been for someone else’s sake. He was able to put up with working multiple part time jobs not just because he kind of had to in order to survive, but because his grandma was terminally ill and he wanted to do anything he could to get her treated and to repay her for all that she'd done for him. And he of course, unfortunately, puts up with Jaekyung’s treatment of him, again because of his love for his grandma. Almost conversely, though, it is his love for his grandma that makes him able to stand up to Jaekyung and tell him to fuck off for a bit—I believe they're in the middle of sex when Dan gets an emergency call from the hospital, and Dan more confidently than he's been able to before refuses to continue the act, because his grandma’s wellbeing takes precedence over everything else. We hadn’t seen a moment like that from Dan before, from what I remember. It was to the point where even Jaekyung was surprised by the outburst.
Another moment where we get Dan's strength showing through due to his care for another character is when he challenges Jaekyung to a sparring match for the sake of fulfilling a wish he might have (and, as we know, to try to understand Jaekyung's occupation better so that he can be a better physical therapist to him). He gives it his all despite it seeming impossible for him to win, supposedly for his own, and Jaekyung's, personal gain. But when the fight is over and he ends up winning through almost underhanded means, again shocking Jaekyung, we learn he actually (partially) did it because he wanted to grant Potato's wish of sparring with Jaekyung!!!
Personally, I like these moments a lot—they deepen and complicate Dan's character, showing that despite the rest of his behavior, he does actually have his own hard lines drawn in the sand, and he is, or was, willing to do whatever it takes to defend those lines. They’re fun and interesting and sweet and pleasantly surprising, and they have/had the potential to pave the way for an exciting character arc for him—where he gradually learns to focus more on himself and the people and things he really cares about and learns to stand up for himself and those things more often. Where he, in essence, breaks out of the hell cycle of devaluation that Jaekyung traps him in.
I found myself curious about these moments because of Jaekyung’s reactions to them as well. We don’t get to find out much of what he’s thinking when they happen (although to be fair some details are fuzzy to me so maybe we do) but both times—the incident with Dan’s grandma and the sparring match—Jaekyung seems to be legitimately surprised and even impressed by Dan. Which, to me, similarly hinted at something possibly more complex about Jaekyung’s character. You’d expect him to have lashed out during these moments, but no…again, I don't remember the phone call incident as well, but I believe he really did let Dan go. And similarly, with the sparring match, he does later on allow Dan to express what his own PERSONAL wishes were (though he shuts them down, lol). Something about these moments genuinely take Jaekyung aback enough to not only please him, but also to want to kind of be nicer to Dan, and I couldn’t help but wonder why. I thought that maybe the author might’ve been doing that trope where the asshole character is being like “haha, you’re not like other girls, the other girls just fold under my abuse and/or run away, but you actually stand up to me and I think that’s sexy ". Which, to be clear, is in and of itself a bit of a ridiculous trope, but still interesting in its own right.
Unfortunately, as of season 1 we don’t/didn’t get any more of these moments like I hoped we might, which makes them seem more like one-off moments or complete flukes or mere plot devices (Dan's resistance might've been ultimately for the sake of Jaekyung going to pay off the hospital bills and make Dan feel more indebted to Jaekyung, and the Potato wish thing...well, who knows)—like they weren't deliberate choices made by the author. To be fair though—besides the obvious fact that the webtoon isn’t finished and so we could see more of this in season 2—character development does not have to be linear and it often isn’t. And it would make sense for Dan to have less moments like these over time, considering how much time he has spent isolated in his relationship with Jaekyung who has been nothing but horrible to him. But nonetheless it does feel a little disappointing and like wasted potential (as of now) for us to not have seen more of this side of Dan—Dan who can and will fight back for the people that he loves. I think having more of these moments earlier on not only could’ve added more character complexity to both Dan and Jaekyung, but it also would’ve made even more evident the impact that Jaekyung has on Dan, the way he demoralizes and wears Dan (and all the other people in his life) down, and makes it increasingly difficult to not just want to do whatever he wants to escape his abuse.
tl;dr Dan has moments of strength borne of his loving and caring nature, and I think that the webtoon could've and still could benefit from leaning further into those moments. It makes both Dan and Jaekyung's characters and interactions more interesting and complex.