Bluestar's Favorite

It's strange to read this after rereading White Angels Have No Wings (for the second time). First and foremost, the art is just so different. You would think they switched artists in between if you look at the first page of WAHNW and the last page of White Angels Have No Rest (WAHNR). However, upon rereading the first, you see the subtle changes the artist makes to their style that eventually culminates to what comes at the end of this comic. The transformation is really remarkable.

Secondly, I am floored by the consistency the characters have. Dahye and Yeonhwa have not changed at all. They are the same versions of themselves from highschool, only older with access to more resources. Dahye is still manipulative, viciously cruel, and predatory of the weak to relieve her frustrations (often related to Yeonhwa). Yeonhwa is still obsessive over those who show her any emotional affection, which leads to wildly abusive situations. They may be older, with jobs and commitments, but they are still as unstable as before. They would make for great character studies. Which I will do here because I can't help myself.

I find it very funny that, in the Season 1, Dahye was freaked out by Yeonhwa being a lesbian only to grow into...well, this, in the Season 2. It makes one wonder if she was always naturally attracted to girls or if she just obsesses over Yeonhwa to the point of finding people (women) who could replace her to relieve her own sexual traumas. Either way, Dahye ended up becoming Yeonhwa in this webtoon: a predator.

Which speaks to the complexity of human emotion and how muddled things can become when we work through our trauma. As much as I hated Dahye in the first comic, there is no denying that her experiences at the hands of Yeonhwa have deeply, permanently scarred her. Only to willingly allow a sexual assault in the first comic and later to enact multiple assaults in this one, thus facilitating the same scars upon others.

But see, the kicker is that Dahye was always a foil of Yeonhwa: Dahye was always a predator. Just, not a sexual predator, at first. Yeonhwa has pointed this out on more than one occasion: this strange desire to see others in pain that is in Yeonhwa is also in Dahye. They are the same character with very different mannerisms and backgrounds and personalities, but the foundations of their selves are rooted in seeing people suffer. It is how they survive their otherwise mundane lives.

Yeonhwa tortures Dahye because she is bored. Dahye tortures, well, everyone, because she is bored. This is a characteristic that has always been in them. Yeonhwa's sister has pointed out this much about Yeonhwa.

Dahye, however, likes to pretend that her upbringing was what messed her up, but this is a very Dahye thing to do: to deflect blame from herself and to hold others accountable for her shortcomings. It could very well be that Dahye is only using her stressful upbringing as an excuse to harm others. In fact, I am quite sure of it. Of course, because she is attractive, rich, and a great actor, people are very easily fooled, Minhye included.

I could go on about these characters. They are such horrible people. But that is what makes them so fascinating; they are convincingly horrible people. They are not cariacatures of evil, but girls who grew into women with overtly sadistic streaks. Kudos to Gado for making these compelling, terrible, yet somehow likeable, characters.