detectivegrampus

[detectivegrampus]

whoever chose these subs needs to meet me outside STAT because this is NOT WHAT HE SAYS

and the mistranslation is egregious because this is literally IT this is The Moment for this character this is THE POINT ! OF! THE ENTIRE THING

he doesn't say 남고 싶다 or 머물고 싶다 or any 남아있고 싶-situation that would be stay/remain/continue; he says "살고 싶어" and there's a pause, and then, more insistently, "난 살고 싶어요." 살다 is LIVE.

what he actually says is "I want to live... I want to live."

given the themes and character arcs of the show these subtitles are BAFFLING to me. the given translation could imply that myungha just wants to 'stay' in a comfortable fantasy, like he's still thinking of this as an unreal place, a game he wants to keep hanging out in. but that's not it at all; what the actual line communicates isn't that he wants to 'stay' in a hallucination or a simulation, or keep playing a game. he says he wants to LIVE.

and that's the point of the entire show!! myungha and yeowoon don't want to live. then, over the course of the show, gradually they do.

[detectivegrampus]

Love for Love's Sake | Messages you didn't notice #6 | Sunbae Theory

I wanted to add this to my previous post about other messages and their translation and theories (here) but it was becoming too long, so I'm posting it separetely.

Guys, I kept thinking about the fact that we never got to learn more about the meaning of these "random" messages. And then I realized I was overthinking it too much.

ALL THESE MESSAGES WERE ACTUALLY FROM MYUNGHA'S SUNBAE WHO MISSED HIM IN REAL LIFE!!!

In the final episode there's a moment when the last message shows up, and the author is finally written.

"I hope that place sparks your hope. From sunbae."

After we learn Myungha's full backstory, we now know "that place" means "afterlife". And if you look back on all the messages it MAKES SENSE, if you think that these are messages that are still coming on Myungha's phone from a friend – or, if we consider that everything is happening in Myungha's head, these are the thoughts about him by someone else.

Sunbae missed Myungha who was suddenly gone from life.

[In May, there is Children's Day, Parents' Day, there is even Teacher's Day but there is no Day when I can meet you] [I was passing by and saw a bracelet that you used to wear long time ago. It reminded me of you. I wonder if you still wear that bracelet.] [I broke a vase that was a gift from you. Can it be repaired?] [I thought only you dressed like that but others do too. I knew it wasn't you but I still followed. But why would you be dressed like that] (last sent messages) [I miss you. If only I could go there…] [Everything depends on what you'll do. Get yourself together.] [I hope that place sparks your hope. From sunbae.]

Tell me if these messages don't look like they were written by someone mourning the loss of a dear person. Someone who might be still sending messages to the number that will never reply anymore (and Myungha never did!). A chat that has become a diary of memories and longing, filled with a ghost of someone whose specific details you keep noticing in your everyday life. There is no Day when they can meet anymore. If only he could see him again...

I'm not sure about the vase but Myungha wore a bracelet in the beginning of the story (that was the first detail we notice about him tbh when he looks through the novel draft in the very first scene).

Someone else on Tumblr has expressed a theory that sunbae is a friend (or someone who loved Myungha) who decided to commemorate his friend in a written novel because they wanted to give him a happy life instead of a miserable one Myungha lived in real life.

I am so on board with this theory, (even though I like the grim reaper/deity theory or Myungha creating the world for himself), I think sunbae did exist in real life. And he obviously cared about Myungha, whether his love was to teach him a harsh lesson or to commemorate him in a meaningful story. After all, isn't this what all authors do to their characters? They make them go through conflicts and breaking points in order to overcome it all and finally find a happy ending.

Maybe sunbae has regretted that Myungha was never able to accept the love that others wanted to give him so he wrote the story to change that. Maybe sunbae is actually Yeowoon who wanted to put Myungha in his shoes and teach him how to love and be loved – actually, remember young Yeowoon, who lost Myungha due to his decision to erase himself from the game, who cried and picked up a pen to bring him back, starting a mission to make Myungha happy.

Maybe this novel is a desperate attempt to make peace and hope that someone you lost could be still loved at last.

No matter what, Sunbae was surely grieving Myungha.

[detectivegrampus]

doing wayyy too much for it to be unrequited

[detectivegrampus]

“I realized, Hell wasn’t the residence or this company. It was people around me.” - Yoon Jongwoo 

There’s this saying, you know? Hell is other people.

Strangers From Hell (2019)

[detectivegrampus]

A thoughtful, kindhearted little man.

[detectivegrampus]

One of the many ways that Moonjo showed how special Jongwoo is to him is by crafting a piece of jewelry that is out of his typical 'art' pieces. He believes that Jongwoo was worthy of not just one, but several sacrificial lambs in order for him to reach his final transformation. The bracelet of teeth symbolizes a gift that will continue to take lives. A cycle that will repeat with Jongwoo who is shown to be wearing it in the hospital after the eden incident.

It's Moonjo's silent declaration of 'I killed for you and I'll do it again. But for now, it's your turn. After all, we are of the same kind.'

[detectivegrampus]

I have a proposition for you on the ending of Strangers From Hell:

Canonically, it doesn't matter whether Moonjo is dead or alive at the end of episode 10. Just like it doesn't really matter whether Jongwoo hallucinated seeing the dentist every time he saw him out of the corner of his eye or if Moonjo was actually stalking him all the time - or if it was a mixture of both.

The important part is that Moonjo got under Jongwoo's skin. That he's part of Jongwoo's subconscious now. He accomplished what he wanted to do, finished his magnum opus, completely destroyed Jongwoo.

#strangers from hell #this show has a hold on me like everytime i think i'm over it comes back #i started writing this in april and now found this in my notes for some reason #is this proper english even #it doesnt matter #this is me using my foreigner card #yoon jongwoo #seo moonjo

[detectivegrampus]

For anyone who loves TDJ, Beyond Evil or Strangers From Hell: give Watcher a try.

When I first saw it, it had me on the edge of my seat for all sixteen episodes. The story, the characters, the moral ambiguity and grey areas and where you draw the line, the action scenes (also, Seo Kang Joon's gorgeous eyes) - it's great.

#devil judge #beyond evil #strangers from hell #watcher #seo kang joon #has the prettiest eyes ever like nothing compares #i thought the female characters were great #also there's a lot of sass and sarcasm #whats not to like #feel welcome to tell me what you thought of it

[detectivegrampus]

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.

#devil judge #seriously can we talk about ethics and why they are necessary #for a just and happy society pls #kim ga on #jinyoung #jisung #kang yohan #i love both of the characters as much as you do but come on guys #don't @ me to argue yohan's the awesomest pls because i won't listen and you'll just be wasting your time

[detectivegrampus]

the eyes are so obviously the superior sensory organ. solely because i can turn them off when i'm done.

#tounge is on second place because it's the only muscle that can move like that #ears are generally cute but they force me to listen to so much bs #i don't make any points #shower thoughts #i should be sleeping rn #sleep deprived af

[detectivegrampus]

It took me about four episodes until I realised what this OST from My Country: The New Age reminded me of:

It was Celine Dion's iconic "My Heart Will Go On". Do with that whatever you want.

#my country the new age #ost #celine dion #my heart will go on #i loved it #but it was super distracting #the instrumental is called 'lost castle' btw #does anyone have an opinion on this

[detectivegrampus]

Strangers from Hell has one of the most unreliable narrators I've ever encountered in a TV show and I love it.

It's done so beautifully both storytelling-wise and in its craftsmanship.

The ambiguity is not the heart but the lungs of the series. It showcases Jongwoo's mental state and translates it into cinematic craft perfectly.

It makes the biggest plot twists feel like you should have seen this coming - only you didn't - before realising that maybe even the revelation isn't what actually happened.

Moreover, it makes us see and feel and experience everything from Jongwoo's perspective but we can still understand the other characters outside of his twisted view.

It explains motives and background stories without actually telling us *anything*, wraps up the story without clarifying everything but the lose ends feel natural - like they're supposed to be like this, like anything else wouldn't be right.

#it's been 1 1/2 years and i still think about it #that's how great i think that show is #ranting #hell is other people #strangers from hell #i don't make any points

[detectivegrampus]

On tumblr, everyone seems to absolutely hate Jongwoo's girlfriend and from what I've read it's mainly because of these things: she's not interested in Jongwoo's writing at all, their conversations barely scratch beyond surface level, she spends more time with Jongwoo's boss than her boyfriend.

Here's my theory on this: Jieun doesn't know how to talk to Jongwoo.

He clearly has PTSD, most likely from his time in the military. His anger issues that are always one sentence from breaking through his calm exterior, his absentmindedness, how he barely shows any interest in the people around him and the interactions he has with them, the nightmares and flashbacks, his recklessness. Even he himself sometimes seems unable to unify his feelings and his behaviour with how he perceives himself.

Trauma changes people and I think Jongwoo might've been a very sensitive and rather naive guy in the past. From her perspective, he left for military and never came back.

But Jieun feels guilty - maybe they just need time, it's not his fault, maybe they just have both changed. So she stays in a relationship with this stranger but their conversations become shallow and the things he says scare her (that's my take on why she doesn't ask about his book: it scares her what he's thinking about, the idealistic poetry is now replaced by violent storytelling; part of it probably *is* her not being interested in his writing as much - as romantic she found him and his words, she grew up in the past years and writing isn't really a reliable form of income from her point of view).

She turns to a sunbae she knows from college who listens attentively to her worries and is a shoulder for her to cry on (on that note - Shin Jaeho 100% takes advantage of that, like no excuses for that. He thinks she's hot and he's better than Jongwoo anyway and now's his chance).

Jongwoo can't really see any of that through his anger. His tortured mind only sees her turning away from him and towards his sunbae and his sunbae whom he trusted looks down on him and takes her away from him.

(all of that was essential for me while watching hell is other people and after I spent half an hour scrolling through the strangers from hell tags and couldn't find anything like this, I decided to write it myself. )

#i know tumblr in large parts isn't interested in these things about strangers from hell but that's what made me love it #strangers from hell #hell is other people #character study #i guess #ptsd #is that a coherent theory or am i just rambling #i guess we’ll never know

[detectivegrampus]

Sawamura Eijun is 100% the kind of guy to fall for a scam.

Like, not pyramid scheme type of scam but A-Nigerian-Prince-Needs-Your-Help type of scam.

The only reason he doesn't actually send the money is because Kuramochi reads his emails before he does and deletes his scam mails.

#ace of the diamond #sawamura eijun #kuramochi youichi #sawamura eijun is a country bumpkin you have to forgive him #internet scams #daiya no ace

[detectivegrampus]

Sawamura Eijun highkey could have ADHD and I can't believe it took me this long to realise.

He has trouble sleeping, can't concentrate on things he has no interest for (school, watching baseball), but CAN concentrate on things he is interested in for hours (playing baseball, and I believe he also reads shoujo mangas quite often during the series).

After Seido loses to Inashiro and they watch the Nationals on TV, Eijun ends up looking up the origin of the word 'Kōshien': He gets lost in obviously unimportant things and loses focus of what he originally wanted to do/ gets distracted super easily.

He acts super impulsively all the time, seemingly talking without thinking and has generally 0 volume control. When others talk to him, it's not unusual for Sawamura to look absentminded as if he's not really listening. Sometimes he straight out doesn't seem too realise or care someone else is talking to him.

Lastly, I don't think I have to mention how Eijun seems to have at least three times the energy of an average human being when it comes to physical activity.

#sawamura eijun #daiya no ace #ace of the diamond #adhd #i take criticism

[detectivegrampus]

isn't chewing the skin around your nails technically cannibalism?

#sleep deprived af #shower thoughts #ok that ones a lie #oh also #eating your own organs is weird in general #cannibalism #skin #habits #nail biting

[detectivegrampus]

you think you want me to shut up? i have to listen to myself even when im not talking