finding this show randomly was literally the best thing that ever happened to me. it ticks all of my boxes for things i want in a revenge story, even the romance plot (which i don’t like a lot of the time in avenging plots) jusy is perfect.

the way they kept everything so perfectly interconnected without it seeming forced was so good, it feels so messy like real life, and also reads like the actual recounts of the shitty lives of the wealthy. (also learning that some of it comes from real experience breaks my heart, especially since i saw her in an interview she seems like the sweetest person ever.)

this is a perfect tale of gritty revenge, especially from someone who was living in poverty without good parental figures, whose life was destroyed by rich assholes. (though sometimes those bully scenes were too much for me and i had to take breaks, even knowing it wasn’t real still it hurts to see that done to a human)

dongguen is such a good protagonist, and i don’t mean morally, i mean she is well-written with motivation and understanding. she knows that her revenge will have to be slow, she knows that she can’t hit them when they’re up, she must hit them when they’re down. the way she finds every way to infiltrate their lives is so good. like i don’t have words to explain how well-thought out the writing and her actual plan is. she never planned to half-ass this, she wants to utterly destroy them and not a petty revenge. she wants them to pay for the things they have done, and the people they trampled. but she doesn’t do this plan while trampling over others like they have, she gives kang-ssi a choice but also compensates her fairly. their relationship is so sweet even under the circumstances they met, and while kang-ssi eventually becomes a pawn because of yeojin, dongguen never planned for her to get hurt. she got her daughter out of their enemy’s power network, she has always made sure nothing would happen to her. (her husband being a pawn was always the plan, it’s why dongguen left him alive bc then yeojin would have a bargaining chip when eventually kang-ssi was supposed to mess up.)

i LOVE the relationship between dongguen and yeojung, and i usually don’t like romance plots in my revenge plots. they’re perfect for each other, as both very emotionally inept people, who had to deal with abuse one way or another, but also as partners in crime. yeojung is GENUINELY TERRIFYING when he has yeojin in his chair, and he’s asking her questions, maybe it’s also because i am terrified of people doing things to me while i am unable to stop them, but he literally puts the fear into her about it. he makes her paranoid without dongguen asking him to do so, he does things she would want him to eventually without even her asking. i know they try to make it seem like he’s a killer, especially with his knives, but his actual background does make me sad. it’s why she reaches out to him in the first place, and the way he took that news was so unexpected! i’m so happy they found each other, because dongguen never had someone fight for her, and yeojung never have someone to take care of. dongguen was not used to someone ever viewing her romantically, and i think yeojung is the perfect person to love her. he is incredibly patient, he is willing to do things he could get in trouble for her, but also his love is genuine. he isn’t using her as a reason to be violent, he is being violent and aggressive BECAUSE he loves her. he wishes he could help her feel comfortable in her own body but respects her decisions to reject it. i just- their romance story works perfectly in this revenge story, because he doesn’t make her stop, he helps her because he knows that he will never be able to even if he wanted to. he has access to things that she doesn’t, and he uses it to help her.

also the actress playing yeojin is LITERALLY PERFECT. she is literally the best villian i’ve seen in a series in the last few years. also, i really hope people weren’t mean to her because of this role because she seems so sweet :( (also all of the actors in their interviews together are so funny, it makes me happy to see this show was so good because of how comfortable they were with each other because sometimes things fall flat because of actor chemistry.)

i’ll end this here so it’s not a yap, just, good on everyone who worked on this show both pt1 and pt2, it’s literally flawless and beautiful i love it.