#like episode 3 annoyed me so much bc it didn't make sense narrative-wise

[driftbending]

i really like vincenzo but episode 8...

vincenzo’s gay panic? out of character. i mean, the man who is capable of flirting with people to win a case & naturally charms other men would not have panicked about having to seduce a man for the sake of taking down babel and hurting the people who hurt his mother.

the above point is doubly insulting to me bc the writers later show that they know how to properly motivate vincenzo into doing this by having minsung tell vincenzo about the way they pinned the death of minsung’s father on vincenzo’s mother. once he’s reminded of this, he flirts without needing chayoung’s guidance & has no qualms about manipulating and flirting with another man. which made the previous scenes with him being nervous around minsung and him freaking out about having to flirt with minsung moot.

making the (so far) only gay character on the show evil is obviously bad, but they didn’t even lean into it as the story went on. they showed minsung was capable of violence and hurt a lot of other partners he had, but once he met vincenzo he was like a puppy dog in love. yes, he might have seen vincenzo as his soulmate and that might’ve accounted for him not being violent with vincenzo, but they didn’t even bring up a hint of the violence he’s capable of. there was no flash of anger the way we see with the jang brothers. for me, it felt as if they forgot the reason minsung was a villain until they needed to send him to jail and to give the audience a reason to root for his downfall.

the show is about getting justice for victims when the system is set up to fail them—we see everyone taking bribes and working to help the babel conglomerate rather than the victims, and we know vincenzo and chayoung are trying to turn the tables on them. so, why couldn’t they bring up one of the victims when it comes to taking down the banker who assaults gay men? chayoung says the violence is bad, regardless of the victim’s gender, so why didn’t they make seeking justice for the victim part of their motivation? personally, i would have been ok with the evil gay man trope if they had at least had us meet one of the victims to show why it’s important to take minsung down.

(there was a post i saw where someone was upset with the ending where they terrorize and publicly humiliate minsung, but he’s the villain and as much as i hate the evil gay man trope, that was one of the rather more satisfying scenes to watch bc he deserved it.)

back to the point about the victims—in the final scene with minsung, we see that he’s has been accused of assault and blackmail and the first thought i had was, will his victims be outed and hurt as a result? that was one of the reasons they didn’t speak out against him earlier, after all. so, if i were writing the story, i would have at least introduced one of the victims and have them be the face of those who are speaking out against minsung. it could have been done via flashback and they could have been someone someone who sought out jipuragi or someone jipuragi reached out to and helped convince to take a stand against minsung. that would’ve still accomplished the goal vincenzo & chayoung had by chipping away at the sterling reputation of the bank so they can hurt babel, while still honoring the victims and helping them find justice. but alas...