I'm not sure I'd call Mookyul truly "weak" in a personality sense, because you're quite right, he doesn't have a weak personality -- though I think in some ways he discounts himself, privately, and just puts up a huge front daring anyone else to do the same. I mean, we could probably go so far as to say both Ewon and Mookyul are predominantly ruled by their fears, that is, making their biggest decisions based on fears: Ewon acts/reacts out of fear of getting tied down, while Mookyul acts out of fear of being abandoned/left alone. Mookyul can't take the rejection not because he's impervious to rejection but because he refuses to accept that he's being abandoned; he knows how to fight, so that's what he does (whether physically or by other means).
Mookyul's already effectively selling his own body to retain his place in one person's heart, after that, what's some words and roses and getting down on one knee? He says of his childhood self, "It wasn't because of my toughness or my stubborness that I never cried; in all honesty, I was a weakling. I just didn't want to acknowledge that I was poor and needed anyone else's help to survive."
In effect, their childhood roles have reversed (which is the fundamental reversal under Yoo's reverse-the-stereotypes, I think): from the stubborn orphan who won't accept help who becomes the one whose loyalty is almost an extreme and who really doesn't have a lot of self-confidence to draw a line and risk abandonment, to the not-really-an-orphan who says of himself, "The difference was my conniving and cowardly nature, for I understood the importance of people despite their pity or hypocrisy. I never had the courage to leave people for good no matter how miserable I was." And look where Ewon ended up, eh.
You're right that it's a bit of hyperbole, too, to say it's a strictly seme-uke and the positions have flipped; I don't think Yoo is going to suddenly go down that path, not after the circuitous route she's taken so far. (Well, if she did, I'd be very very disappointed!) But in the context of the traditional romantic sub/plot in fiction, the lowest denominator romance follows a split of powerful/powerless (or seducer/seduced), and up to this point Mookyul's had all the trappings of the powerful position. I just think that Ewon, in laying down the line -- and more importantly, I think, forcing Mookyul into a position where it's obvious that Mookyul can't also lay down the line as well -- managed to undermine all the previous stereotypical powerful-identifiers and show himself as (at least in this situation) far more powerful, because he's able (and willing) to lay down limits.
Dynamics and stereotype-flipping aside, yeah, I sure hope it's the start of a healthier stage, but this is Yoo we're talking about... so I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more worse before there's a lot more better. Isn't this thing slated to end up being around fifteen volumes?
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Date: 23 Aug 2008 08:38 am (UTC)Mookyul's already effectively selling his own body to retain his place in one person's heart, after that, what's some words and roses and getting down on one knee? He says of his childhood self, "It wasn't because of my toughness or my stubborness that I never cried; in all honesty, I was a weakling. I just didn't want to acknowledge that I was poor and needed anyone else's help to survive."
In effect, their childhood roles have reversed (which is the fundamental reversal under Yoo's reverse-the-stereotypes, I think): from the stubborn orphan who won't accept help who becomes the one whose loyalty is almost an extreme and who really doesn't have a lot of self-confidence to draw a line and risk abandonment, to the not-really-an-orphan who says of himself, "The difference was my conniving and cowardly nature, for I understood the importance of people despite their pity or hypocrisy. I never had the courage to leave people for good no matter how miserable I was." And look where Ewon ended up, eh.
You're right that it's a bit of hyperbole, too, to say it's a strictly seme-uke and the positions have flipped; I don't think Yoo is going to suddenly go down that path, not after the circuitous route she's taken so far. (Well, if she did, I'd be very very disappointed!) But in the context of the traditional romantic sub/plot in fiction, the lowest denominator romance follows a split of powerful/powerless (or seducer/seduced), and up to this point Mookyul's had all the trappings of the powerful position. I just think that Ewon, in laying down the line -- and more importantly, I think, forcing Mookyul into a position where it's obvious that Mookyul can't also lay down the line as well -- managed to undermine all the previous stereotypical powerful-identifiers and show himself as (at least in this situation) far more powerful, because he's able (and willing) to lay down limits.
Dynamics and stereotype-flipping aside, yeah, I sure hope it's the start of a healthier stage, but this is Yoo we're talking about... so I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more worse before there's a lot more better. Isn't this thing slated to end up being around fifteen volumes?