#lee jihun

[kitkatsudon]

A brief foray into the military ranks of TKEM characters…

It’s no secret that our favourite boys from the Kingdom of Corea have a history in the military - but apart from Gon being bottom of his class in the Naval Academy (as confirmed by Choi Gitae in Ep4), what else do we know? As with every tiny detail that sparks my interest in this show, I took it upon myself to find out, and gave myself a headache in the process. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Lee Jihun:

I’m starting with him because he’s the only one I could find a concrete answer for, thanks to him being from a universe very similar to ours. Though we only see him very briefly in Ep16, from that short scene we can glean a little bit of information about what he was doing:

To find his rank, one needs only to look at his epaulettes. You can see that his are black, with three gold stripes: two thick ones, with a thin stripe in the middle. This identifies his rank as follows:

He’s a Soryeong, which is the equivalent rank to a Lieutenant Commander.

However, what I find perhaps more interesting for Jihun is this badge he’s wearing:

Though it’s blurry when you zoom in, I’m pretty sure it’s this one:

You heard it here first, folks. Lee Jihun is a Navy SEAL. They didn’t have to include this detail - you’d probably have to be quite familiar with the military to recognise it straight away, and I doubt that even most Korean fans would be able to recognise it, because I can tell you for a fact that I wouldn’t be able to recognise the equivalent for my own country. Someone on the production team decided this, and I want to give them a big kiss on the mouth, because now it’s confirmed that the sweet little Jihun we saw grew up to be totally badass after his abusive father passed away. I sincerely hope that it was a good life that led him to joining this branch of the military, and not some combination of horrible factors that pushed him into joining one of the most intense and dangerous branches… hm. I’m not going to dwell on that, actually. You can all make your own conclusions here.

Now… to the Kingdom. *sigh.* This is where things start to get more vague and confusing. I’m going to start with ranks first, and then go onto what they were doing as one big section because, spoiler alert, I haven’t got any sort of concrete idea.

Lee Gon:

His rank is easiest to determine, because Choi Gitae says it explicitly when they met at his father’s funeral in Ep4. I cross-referenced this with the closed-caption Korean subtitles, and everything adds up nicely: though he’s the Commander-in-Chief of all the armed forces in the Kingdom, thanks to his position as the monarch, while he was actually serving, he rose to the rank of Daewi, or Lieutenant - the highest rank of the junior officers - before leaving the navy.

Jo Yeong:

When we see Yeong in his navy uniform in Ep6, this is what we can see:

Once again, that same pattern emerges on his epaulettes of two thick stripes surrounding a thin stripe - he’s a Soryeong, a Lieutenant Commander. This means that Yeong ranked one rank higher than Gon before he left the navy, which is something that brings me quite a lot of joy.

However, something I like even more than that is Yeong’s current title, as the leader of the Royal Guard. We all know him and love him as Captain Jo, but in Korean he’s referred to as 조영 대장 - Jo Yeong Daejang. This is what Gon calls him in the iconic “Are you having fun, Captain Jo?” and you can also see that title of Daejang on his character page on the official TKEM website. On WordReference, this is what happens if I search for 대장:

Ignoring the results about other things, it doesn’t seem to mean “Captain” explicitly, it’s more like a general kind of leader title. His rank isn’t necessarily “Captain,” it’s whatever Daejang is equivalent to. So… how good is a Daejang? Looking at the South Korean armed forces, in the army, air force, and marine corps, Daejang is equivalent to General, and in the navy, Daejang is equivalent to Admiral. To put this into context a little better, the only rank in the South Korean navy higher than Daejang is Wonsu, and this rank only exists on paper and has never been given to any officer of the South Korean armed forces. To achieve this rank of Wonsu, you’re appointed from the rank of Daejang when you have “distinguished achievements.”

In conclusion: Yeong has an incredibly high rank in the armed forces, second only really to Gon himself, assuming no one from the Kingdom has ever been appointed the rank of Wonsu either. However… there’s a first time for everything, and though I’m only speculating and of course could never say anything for sure, if anyone was going to get those distinguished achievements needed to be a Wonsu, it would be our Jo Yeong Daejang.

Choi Gitae:

I’m including him briefly because I have a bone to pick with the subtitles. In English, he’s Captain Choi. In Korean, Gon refers to him as Hamjang, which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t exist in the South Korean navy of our universe. In the Korean subtitles in Ep4, he’s named as 최 소령, Choi Soryeong, and he’s just… he’s not that. Let’s take a look at some pictures:

The epaulettes on the first picture and the star badge on the second tell us that his rank should be this:

He’s a Junjang, equivalent to a Rear Admiral (lower half). Not a Captain, and not a Lieutenant Commander. As for the Hamjang/Junjang disparity, I’m going to suggest that Hamjang is the Kingdom of Corea’s equivalent to the Republic’s Junjang.

So, what was everyone doing in the navy?

The only clue we have is a badge:

This is from Yeong’s uniform, but in Ep6 Choi Gitae was wearing the same, and Gon was wearing a gold version of it. However, for the life of me, I can’t seem to figure out what it is! The design seems to be that of a ship sailing through the waters, but that just gives ✨navy✨ in a general sense. Browsing google images, I’ve noticed the same golden badge that Gon wears on other high ranking members of the South Korean navy, so maybe it signifies a high rank? Or maybe it just means that the wearer is in the navy? I don’t know! I can’t work it out! What it tells us at least is, if Yeong isn’t wearing a “specialised” badge like Jihun… it’s unlikely that he served in any kind of special forces… which I feel is a piece of information that might break some hearts in the fandom as their headcanons shatter into pieces. I’m disappointed too, because when I saw Yeong’s badge without paying attention to any of the other characters, I thought that the two shapes on the sides looked a little like submariner dolphins, so I’ve spent half a year or so thinking that’s what Yeong did in the navy, before I realised that Gon and Choi Gitae had the exact same badge.

So, if anyone has been bothered enough to read this far and also happens to be a Korean military buff, I would love you forever if you could tell me exactly what this badge means, and whether it gives us any indication of what Yeong or Gon or anyone else was doing in the navy. However, maybe it’s good that it’s unclear, because that leaves fic writers plenty of room to wonder about what Gon and Yeong were doing in the military - whether they were doing different things, strengthening their bond as best bros doing the same thing, and if you’re on the same side of this fandom as me, whether they were repressing some big feelings at seeing each other in their military uniforms, or whether they were engaging in certain activities that are maybe stereotypical of sailors cooped together on the same boat without women to spend their nights with… there’s plenty of room for interpretation :D

#my favourite thing that I’ve learnt from this is Yeong ranking higher than Gon in the navy #there’s SO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE #something else that ep6 demonstrates is that soryeong is a rank in the corean navy because yeong hands gon’s flag to someone with that rank #it was said verbally and it was consistent with his uniform #so why is soryeong consistent but not hamjang/junjang?! #ANSWER ME KIM EUNSOOK #another honourable mention is… do you guys remember the yoyo kid’s older form? #he appears in the republic to bully shinjae and he’s also on gon’s rowing team #anyway you can see him in the funeral in ep4 and he’s also a soryeong #something that’s interesting to note is that no one in uniform in ep4 is wearing that mysterious badge #not even choi gitae even though he’s wearing it in ep6 #it makes me wonder whether they added it as an afterthought #i wouldn’t be surprised #tkem #kitkat’s tkem deep dives #lee gon #jo yeong #lee jihun

[thecollectibles]

Art by JiHun Lee

#art #digital art #Illustration #painting #JiHun Lee

[kyghostly]

welcome to my humble presentation:

this took 3+ hrs.

[IDs in alt text.]

#weak hero #weak hero webtoon #weak hero manhwa #im gonna tag every character ONCE #w their real names this time #sieun yeon #juntae seo #humin park #hyuntak go #gayool jin #<- either in eng or korean i cant take his name srs im so sorry #taeoh jin #juyang im #baekjin na #seongje keum #jihun bae #hagho ji #sehan lee #im gonna add the rest of the ids later im TIRED man #kyro.txt

[lesbianslovebts]

Han Juwon: Kang Minjeong? Who is that, Assistant Inspector Lee's girlfriend?

Oh Jihun: Ew, no, she's like a daughter to him.

Han Juwon: ...DILF

Oh Jihun: What?

Han Juwon: I said you're filth.

#han juwon #lee dongsik #oh jihun #jwds #beyond evil #llbtspost

[meninfantasyart]

Gladiator by JiHun Lee

#JiHun Lee #gladiator #fantasy art #art station #meninfantasyart

[deeppink-man]

Jihun Lee (Mr.Lee)

CEO of Company.

#Jihun Lee #my oc

[polina-savitskaya]

Self Confidence "Then came a question that caused Liselle to briefly sputter in her drink —..."

I took JiHun Lee art for reference. Recommend for acquaintance, excellent spatial and dynamic works. ---- Based on the story GBTQ by @sigmalied

#mass effect #concept art #liselle t'loak #aria t'loak #asari #turian #omega #omega dlc #batarian #space opera #JiHun Lee #polsav

[wheretfisknk]

#❤️❤️❤️ #jeong inseong #kim jihun #lee dongwon #knk

[tramwayless]

quiet happiness

a very important bonus:

#beyond evil #괴물 #jwds #주원동식 #lee dongsik #han juwon #oh jihun #oh jihwa #yoo jaeyi #it's my 1 year anniversary with beyond evil! #i'm so glad i watched it<3

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Oriq Loremage

Artist: JiHun Lee TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

#mtg #magic the gathering #tcg #jihun lee #oriq loremage #magic online promos #creature #human #warlock

[blue-pmgrnt]

Knk lovely dorks 😔✊️

#illustration #fanart #kpop fanart #digital art #kpop boys #kpop edits #knk #keunakeun #park seoham #kim jihun #oh heejun #jeong inseong #lee dongwon #seoham #dongwon #i lost count of how many times seoham changged his name 😭 #miss them but they seem to be doing ok by themselves 😔🩵

[kitkatsudon]

What are your thoughts on their characters of the alternate universe also being neurodivergent?

Eg, Gon and Jihun both having autism. Or Yeong and Eunseob also both being neurodivergent.

First of all, what a great question! I’m very pleased you’ve got me talking about this in a public place, lol.

I think the best way to start is to think about the question in a general sense, rather than focusing on Eunseob and Jihun in particular. After all, the multiverse is vast, but the question here is… exactly how vast? It really depends on how you conceptualise it. In the TKEM canon, we’re shown different universes that contain variants of the characters we’re familiar with, and it’s implied that everyone exists with the same DNA in every universe, implying strict continuity within the universes… except that’s not quite right, is it? If that were the case, one would expect people to live and die at the same time in every universe, but we have proof that isn’t the case, even without Lee Lim’s meddling. Take Song Jeonghye, for example: she’s alive and kicking in the Republic, but in the Kingdom Queen Song died when Gon was very small (I think three years old in Korean age?), which was before Lee Lim started drastically altering the continuity between the universes. If people can die at different times in different universes, what happens if someone in one universe died as a baby, but in another universe in the infinite multiverse they went on to have children? These children wouldn’t exist in the first universe where they were dead, causing a big inconsistency between the universes.

That’s why I prefer to think of the multiverse using the mindset that, in the infinite multiverse, there’s a universe where every possible outcome of the universe has happened. This means that there are an infinite amount of universes where, for example, Lee Gon exists as he does in canon, where he exists as he does in our headcanons, and also an infinite amount of universes where he was never born at all. The implication of this is that, if you can think of something, it will exist somewhere in the infinite multiverse. (This also means that every fanfiction is canon, and hypothetically the canon characters could visit the universe of any fanfiction using the Manpasikjeok - I love having the concept of the multiverse in the show’s canon because it means that somewhere, somehow, you’re always right >:D)

With this in mind, my official, blanket answer for the question of whether or not Gonjo variants would be neurodivergent is both yes and no. There would be an infinite number of universes where they are, and an infinite number of universes where they aren’t.

However, you also asked me about these specific cases, so let’s talk about them!

Jihun… is a difficult one to call. What I can say at least is that if he is neurodivergent, he would probably need to be high masking to be able to reach a high position in the military. From his uniform, you can tell that he’s a pretty high ranking officer (I don’t have wifi right now and the signal isn’t good enough for video so I can’t check his exact rank at the moment), which means it would probably be difficult for him to serve if the military thought that potential neurodivergence would affect his ability to do his job. With that being said, it’s certainly not impossible. In my opinion, we haven’t really seen enough of Jihun to make an educated call either way, but from the way he was purposefully paralleled with Gon in the first episode, it’s not out of the question.

As for Eunseob, this is perhaps more likely. We’ve spoken about Gon and Yeong having an ND-to-ND connection, but I think it’s telling that when Gon first arrived in the Republic, Eunseob was the only one to really humour Gon and try and spend any time with him. I think, however, that a big point is how Yeong and Eunseob are presented as such polar opposites, with such extreme personalities. Neurodivergent traits are often characterised by extremes, and the way they’re characterised as extreme opposites in the show really lends itself to a neurodivergent reading for both of them. As for his exact diagnosis, I agree with you in our messages that he’s more likely to be ADHD, but admittedly I have’t really thought about this well enough to create a well thought-out argument as to why - it’s just kind of based on intuition and vibes, more than anything else. Something I want to note is that in @deesarrachi ‘s Polycule Cinematic Multiverse, Yeong has ADHD, and although last time I checked, the full fic isn’t ready yet, I can’t help but wonder if, in this universe, both Yeong and Eunseob have ADHD (and if you see this and would like to, deesarrachi you are more than welcome to expand on this in the comments or in a reblog)

Anyway, I think those are all my thoughts on the subject? Thank you once again for the question, you kept me very entertained while I’ve been sat on the train for a couple of hours :D

#tkem #kitkat’s tkem deep dives #kinda? #it’s more like kitkat happily rambles about her tkem brainrot without doing any kind of additional research to back anything up #it really is making me happy to talk about my headcanons though #thank you so SO much for engaging with me on this #lee gon #jo yeong #lee jihun #jo eunseob #kitkat answers asks

[thecollectibles]

Art by JiHun Lee

#art #digital art #Illustration #painting #JiHun Lee

[inseong]

jihun wished the maknae a happy birthday ❤️❤️❤️

#love them #miss them #also love them #🥲🥲🥲 #knk #heejun #jihun #dongwon #oh heejun #kim jihun #lee dongwon

[lorcardslore]

Snapjaw Swarm - Follower

"Drip, drop, drip, drop, the blood splashes down,

Swim, swim, comes the swarm, better now to drown,

Snip, snap, go the teeth, and we all scream,

To the deep, off we sleep, for forever dreams!"

-Bilgewater nursery ryhme

#Legends of Runeterra #League of Legends #Follower #Empires of the Ascended #Illustration by JiHun Lee

[deeppink-man]

Jihun Lee

#jihun lee #my oc