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I love how Do Hyun Su went "care to stay for a cup of tea?" only to lock Moo Jin up in his basement afterward

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I am just sitting here a little bit in awe because Gyeongseong Creature just delivered some of the smartest character writing I have seen in ages.

We’ve been shown consistently through this narrative that Tae-Sang is a survivor and he strongly believes in doing whatever he must to get by. We also know he values loyalty and cares deeply for the handful of people he considers part of his little found family, and that he’s determinedly built himself a place to belong in this world and more afraid of the possibility of losing it, and his people, than he admits.

Maeda came to him loaded with knives ready not only to lie to him about Chae-Ok being dead, but also to expose the fact that every single member of his found family has betrayed him under duress. She expected this revelation to shatter him, isolate and alienate him, and bring him to heel. And for just a moment, looking at his devastated face, we fear that her plan has worked. But no, he looks her right in the eye and says fuck you, bitch, they only betrayed me because they had to, because people like you forced them to choose between that and survival. He understands they did what they had to do and he has already forgiven them. His devastation is not for what they did to him, but for what they were forced to do and how it must have hurt, humiliated, and shamed them.

It was a gorgeous moment of deep characterization, where we could see all the things we understood about Tae-Sang coming together and adding up to his resilience in the face of Maeda’s attempt to break him, and I will never forget it.

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the "creature" in gyeongseong creature was a clever way to represent violences committed against women during japanese colonial occupation in korea.

land and women are always linked when it comes to colonialism because the land is stolen and destroyed, and so are the bodies of women, appropriated in a similar way by masculine occupation forces. it's a large topic, well-researched if you're really interested.

anyway. the fact that the parasite was tested on women was a clever euphemism for sexual violence. it avoided traumatic (and exploitative) depictions of physical brutality towards female bodies, although it conveyed this strong metaphor.

it also extends the representation of brutality to a people, a land, a culture.

choosing a woman to be the person who incarnates the results of suffering caused by colonialism was definitely the best choice made by the creators of this show. it links all the stories of colonized peoples together through this one feature that you can be sure to always find in accounts of occupation: the exploitation of women and their bodies.

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my aesthetic is haein ripping hyunwoo's clothes off to check his wounds while he sits there blushing like a victorian era bride

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baekhong being domestic is my kryptonite

QUEEN OF TEARS 눈물의 여왕 (2024)

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Queen of Tears text posts, 4/? (Parts 1, 2, and 3)

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casting director for queen of tears: alright we need a man who is going to ugly cry for 16 episodes straight

kim soo hyun:

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this is my take on the initial episodes of queen of tears: so, um. hyunwoo’s reaction to haein dying. a lot of people were immediately put off by it and dropped the drama, calling him an asshole. i wouldn’t say the reaction wasn’t a little uncomfortable to watch as a viewer, but that’s only the case if you’ve never put yourself in the shoes of someone suffering immensely from a dysfunctional relationship.

the lack of overt affection was destroying him because his wife is so closed off and would rather care for him in a way that is impossible to be acknowledged by him, she humiliated him in front of his employees and he had to respond w “yes, ma’am” despite not agreeing w her bc she’s his boss, she didn’t stand up for him vocally when her family was berating him to no end, plus the family made him do their household chores against his will. he had to walk on eggshells around them, especially his wife.

it was so bad that there were multiple scenes where his hands were clenched together, trembling. he went to therapy and got strong anxiety meds prescribed in return. this abysmal marriage was crippling him emotionally and mentally (it’s safe to say haein put him through emotional abuse, even if she didn’t intend to affect him that way)

his initial plan was to divorce haein because he couldn’t take it any longer, even if it meant his multimillionaire father-in-law was going to stab him in the back (figure of speech). in fact, he preferred being stabbed over having to face the vengeance of the hong family.

the “window fantasy” isn’t fictional. there are multiple women, unwillingly dependent on their narcissistic husbands (not only bc they can’t go anywhere since their working opportunities have been sabotaged but also bc a bad rep will follow them if they leave or don’t yield to their husbands; tldr: there are consequences to leaving), that have wanted to be widowed at some point bc they couldn’t bear the trauma of the marriage. growing up in a south asian society, i know a thing or two about being stuck in traumatic marriages and the only way being out is if your partner somehow dies.

no one would invalidate an abuse victim if they wanted their abuser to die. so, are these women any different just bc they agreed to the marriage when their partner swore to carry out their commitment? only to find out none of their needs are being met and they’re stuck? are they not being abused?

so, people, to an extent, DO justify it when women want their toxic husbands to die because of terrible life situations.

now, back to QoT. i saw someone on twitter say that if the roles were reversed i.e if haein was the one who was wishing for hyunwoo to die, they’d be okay with it bc “yess go get revenge on your toxic husband and free yourself girl” bc misogyny is a systematic thing. it’s not easy to escape abusive husbands in our society especially when they hold power over their partner.

so, for the opposite to happen i.e the husband wanting his wife to die just looks “bad.”

however, queen of tears is a show where it is blatantly obvious that the gender roles are reversed. something that even my younger brother pointed out seamlessly. the hong “queens” family think they’re progressive for making their sons-in-law do their chores for them (something they did not sign up for). this is how many daughters-in-law are treated in modern society. the only reason “misandry” feels more real in the show, in terms of the hong family, is bc the women of this family certainly hold more power over the sons-in-law because of CLASS. haein is a multimillionaire’s daughter while hyunwoo is a villager’s son. they could easily take revenge on his family in irreparable ways. class distinction exists, power exists, abuse exists.

with all that in mind, hyunwoo might as well have been going through the “widow fantasy” where if he left his wife willingly, he’d have to suffer and if he chose to stay, he’d still need to suffer. the only way out was haein not being in his life anymore without him having to do anything.

it sounds cruel but it’s obvious he was pushed to the edge. he wanted to escape the trauma and it should also be noted that by then, he was completely out of love with haein (he told his therapist that he despised his wife the most). how much can you sympathize w someone you can’t even look at without feeling small?

so, in that period, he must’ve went through an overwhelming amount of emotions while he was on survival mode, not allowing him to think straight, or even consider what he had w haein in the past bc much of that was long gone. furthermore, i don’t think he would’ve been that obsessed w the will revision if yanggi didn’t motivate him to think that way, with the intentions of getting compensation for their poor excuse of a marriage.

so yeah, i wouldn’t say he was being a good husband to her initially. but rather, he was being selfish… by looking out for himself for once. he’s always had to clean up the hong family’s mess, looking after their reputation, never getting peace of his own.

then again, it takes two to tango and the marriage failed bc of both hyunwoo and haein’s lack of efforts. but i would say it was more complicated for hyunwoo bc haein always kept him guessing (and she was indecisive as well; the wedding anniversary issue) and he’s grown up in a pretty communicative family, so not taking his partner’s words at face value isn’t something he’s used to. he felt the most unloved.

so, personally, it was hard for me to sympathize with haein until a few more episodes into the show (this is coming from someone who relates to haein a lot, kind of opened up room for a lot of self reflection). she was a bad wife to the point her partner wanted to die. can’t say if the feeling was mutual on her part. haein herself admitted that she was a terrible partner, understanding why he did what he did, despite it being heartbreaking.

another thing i’ve noticed people say is that hyunwoo was pretending to be the good guy and hiding behind his “kind” actions but you could tell his actions became more genuine and he started to catch feelings again, albeit he was in denial at the beginning. when the divorce agreement papers leaked, he told her the honest truth without coming up w excuses, acknowledging that this whole ordeal hurt haein more than it hurt him. he didn’t take advantage of her memory loss (the rain scene w the cat “aeong”) to cut himself some slack and to make sure haein wouldn’t immediately be plotting against him.

he wasn’t hiding behind his actions or claiming to be a good guy. he was owning up.

he started to care, felt guilty (hotel scene in germany) and realized why and how their relationship failed, worked towards making it better. i think he would’ve been honest and told haein abt the divorce himself anyway but learning about it from her mother kind of broke the trust haein had on him.

anyway, i never thought i’d be on tumblr defending a man who was happy at the news of his wife dying but here we are.

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watching queen of tears is just a perpetual state of

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Queen of Tears Text posts 2/? (Part 1)

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Queen of Tears 3/? (Part 1, Part 2)

Jane Austen quotes, in order from Emma, Persuasion, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, and Lesley Castle.

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free palestine 

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aditya kashyap's black kurta u will always be famous

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JAB WE MET (2007) dir. Imtiaz Ali

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okay but aditya kashyap from jab we met basically set the standard for all desi guys.

sorry i don't make the rules.

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someone on twt said that Nam Haengseon is what grown up Na Heedo should've been like and they are 100% correct

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the very fine pipeline from overworked fussy maths’ star teacher to concerned family man that has no idea how to act