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.
as if baku crying and blaming himself for sieun's condition AS A DIRECT PARALLEL TO HOW SIEUN FELT ABOUT SUHO WASN'T ENOUGH.
YOU HIT ME WITH THIS.
im gonna kill myself im so serious
HIS FACE WHEN BEOMSEOK ASKED ARE THEY MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU. HIS FACE. HIS TEAR SLIDING DOWN RIGHT AS BEOMSEOK'S DID. STFU. HE LOVED HIM SO MUCH OH MY GOD IM. I NEED A LOBOTOMY.
Look how many people hate him. I’m pretty damn happy about that 😁😁😁😁😁😁
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
binge watched xo kitty this week (to make fun of it) (the joy of rage. the joy of rage) and minho and kitty give Such similar energy to seojun and jukyung in true beauty... ah...
I forgot to say this last time. Baku, Gotak and I, we all know you visit your friend in the hospital and why he's there. But in my opinion it wasn’t your fault.
*shaking screaming* (hootering and hollering) (a WIP that might be expanded on??? i haven’t properly written in ages idk if i can execute the vision)
HELP. Me. they are making me unwell 👆
and another lil segment. a treat.
(tagging a few people who i hope may be interested to see my writing maybe perchance >_< 🤞: @clawbehavior @gayautisticraccoon @gaylilsherlock )
yo han trying to flirt (it's working)
I had to make this post after seeing this amazing post because this needs to be said for all new viewers of TDJ.
I can actually confirm that the writer did intend for Yohan and Gaon’s relationship to be gay.
Ji Sung said their relationship was one of “seduction”. At the Devil Judge press-con, he confirmed that his role was that of Mephistopheles (around the 23 min mark but I’m at work and can’t pinpoint rn loL) who “seduces” Gaon who is Faust. I’ve analyzed this in more detail in this post.
Writer Moon Yoo Seok has been very open about his influences in crafting Yohan and Gaon’s relationship being: Beauty and the Beast, Goethe’s Faust, and the movie Let The Right One In .
All these influences are either romantic or homoerotic. All of them.
The writer has also confirmed that Gaon occupies a traditionally female character and feminine gender role. He’s used tropes that we normally only see in heterosexual romances for Yohan and Gaon’s romance. A non-exhaustive list:
living together
snooping through the mysterious house of the man who’s whisked you away
undressing your partner and wound-tending
making him food, refusing let anyone eat unless said man returns
understanding him like no other, being the only one who sees through his facade to the loneliness within
choosing him over everyone else (ep 8 and then end of 15)
trying to die for him (twice)
defending him to the het love/past love, everyone around really
PINING, yearning (Gaon literally looked at the bed in ep 16 and thought back to shirtless Yohan okay)
taking care of each other
being vulnerable before and for each other
oogling him shirtless (both of them did this)
hand holding
DEEP. STARES.
sexy bomb defusal
love triangles (K and Soohyun)
Homosexuality is so taboo in Korea that the closest we’ve gotten to proper rep is the wlw couple from Nevertheless and Kim Seo Hyung’s character from Mine, and even then that’s because men find it easier to see women in love with each other than men being in love. And men finance drama production.
Writer Moon Yooseok (who has 25 years of writing experience) has literally done everything he can to get a queer story out there. Heck he’s even including stuff in the TDJ comic (spanking, anyone?) that wouldn’t fly on TV because he has more freedom there.
Ji Sung and Jinyoung have known this from the start as well (that poster photoshoot), and it’s hard not to know that your character is gay when they’re staring at another for 95% of the show and undressing and oogling each other, or when the ending is 2 minutes of sappy staring. They knew.
The director in episode 8′s bts at 6:04 as Jinyoung and Jisung rehearse Gaon ditching Min Jung Ho: “Gaon’s become cute now that Yohan’s here”.
Jinyoung: nods.
Me: Okay we’re all in agreement clearly.
Rather than new fans being disappointed for it not being gay enough, I hope they can uplift this for what it is: a serious attempt to bring a gorgeous romance onscreen. Writer Moon Yoo Seok really said lawful husbands. He’s been saying it from the beginning.
in the beginning of the season, all he wanted was to sit quietly in the background, exist in peace, and yearn for suho without the world clawing at him. but he’s a gravitational force. he doesn’t seek the world, the world seeks him. the good, the bad, all of it. and even though he never seeks human connection, insists that he doesn’t need friends, he loves having them. he loves loving them.
he’s not loud about it, he doesn’t know how to be, but his loyalty is violent, bone-deep, unwavering. he’ll fight for his friends, kill for them, stand up to their dads without blinking. he’ll set himself on fire to keep them warm.
and the most tragic part? he could’ve stayed invisible. he could've stayed out of it all. the bad guys didn’t even want him, they wanted baku. but sieun’s heart won't let him walk away. his instinct to protect always wins. always. something he learnt from suho.
he shows up (all four feet of him); no real fighting skills, no actual strength, just this terrifying cocktail of rage, stubbornness, desperation, and whatever object he can get his hands on to stab someone with.
but beneath all of that, he’s just a kid. a scared, tired, broken kid. he flinched when seongje first cornered him in the bathroom. he cried when his friends told him it wasn’t his fault. he carries the kind of guilt that rots you from the inside out, and he’s still trying to make sense of it. still trying to believe he deserves good things.
he’s just a teenage boy who’s been handed too much pain too early and still, still, he chooses to love.
“I'm sorry that I forgot... everything that you taught me. how great it is to have friends. how nice it is to laugh. what you did for me... I want to try doing that for others.” — weak hero class 2