#don't @ me to argue yohan's the awesomest pls because i won't listen and you'll just be wasting your time

[sunandrainfic]

random kdrama post, but this is bugging me so much.

People who watch Devil Judge and don’t understand that Kang Yohan is a domestic terrorist who 

a) collected people who were in pain and seduced them to his side by manipulating their pain in order to get them to commit unethical acts (he openly admits this is what he does in episode nine)

b) manipulated public opinion to consciously erode the rule of law and institute mob rule in korea, paving the way for the President to turn the state fascist

c) asked millions of people to become complicit in murder

d) BLEW UP A BUILDING AND KILLED PEOPLE IN IT...

like.

I get he’s pretty, I get he’s broken, and I’m not saying you can’t love him. Jisung turned in a fantastic, vulnerable performance. Go ahead and love him.

But he literally says himself he’s the abyss. He’s the embodiment of angry mob rule. His actions were both unethical and ineffective: as Ga On points out, none of what Yohan did changed the broken system in the end. 

It worries me that people praise Yohan as this savior character just because he sees the system is broken. The difference between Yohan and Ga On is Yohan sees the cracks and tries to smash the whole pot. Ga On sees the cracks and tries to perform Kintsugi. 

One way is violent and painful and chaotic. The pieces go flying, random bystanders get hurt, and at the end of it, you have a smashed pot and nothing to carry water in. You could make another pot afterward, but if that pot cracks again later, what do you do? Just smash that one, too?

The other way is deliberate and painstaking and difficult. No random bystander gets hurt, and you have a beautiful pot that’s stronger than it was before, that can’t crack in the same places, and that can carry all the water you need without spilling. If another crack appears, you’ve established a quick and immediate way to deal with it: pour in more gold.

That’s why it’s Ga On -- with his serious consideration of ethics, his empathy, and his compulsive need to care -- that’s the one left at the end to try to change the system. Because Yohan’s methods are incapable of doing that.