Gone

Aww Ally, thanks for the great idea.

I'm waiting for season 3 to watch S1 and S2. I'm excited to see it.

That's what I was saying! So glad people agree.

I think I'll just let it disappear lol I don't think it qualifies as a review for the show since it only mentions one character.

Thank you 🥰

I don't usually write comments this long either 😅 I was shocked to see how long it ended up being. I was sure nobody would read but I'm happy hear people enjoyed it regardless of the length. Thank you for the heart and I hope we do get characters like him who get their full potential in other shows.

Forreal. It doesn't matter if they switched him, he is a little too tragic to not care about him. I would feel bad regardless.

Thank you ❤❤

Thank you!!! Too many people been saying we like him because he is hot and handsome. I just want people to know there is more to his character than looks.

Lmao what a WALL of text. I put it on spoiler to lessen it.

I said I would write a character analysis on Ryushio so here it is. I'm going to divide this into 3 categories. Background, character dive in and his relationship with Namsoon so feel free to jump to whichever one you like to read about.

[Ryushio's Background]

One of the reason why this drama flopped is because it created a message that also contradict itself. Let me bring up some of the quotes I remember.

"I'll hear her out myself and deal with her myself if I have to. I left the watches in my room for her to take. Being short of money makes people do bad things. I wanted to prevent that." - Geumja about Hwaja after she tried to kill her daughter and stole her jewellery [Episode 5] {24:41}

In this case, Ryusio was doing bad things not because he needs money. He is forced to do it as someone raised in the mafia on conditions where they put kids in cages to dog fight each other. You have to beat each other up if you want to eat because this is part of the brainwashing and conditioning they had to do to make these kids ruthless. It was shown that Ryusio, as a kid, couldn't beat up other kids so he straved for a while making him weaker so Binbin, took mercy on him and asked him to knock him out so he can eat. [Episode 9]

When the kids swore to escape one day to Hungary, Binbin realized, how ridiculous and naive they were because Pavel took him there too. It made him realize that no matter "where" they go, they can't escape Pavel's chokehold so no place is ever "free" from Pavel [Episode 16] While Ryushio made the choice to stay [Episode 12]

As everyone knows, traitors get the death execution. It is a common rule of the mafia, gangsters, and even drug cartels (if you snitched on them). He was ordered as a child to kill a traitor and that mindset is what shaped him as an adult. [Episode 10]

Which is why Ryushio is obsessed with strength. If he can't escape Pavel, be BIGGER than them, be STRONGER than them so they can't come after him. That is why he plotted in secret for a long time and created the antidote using himself as human experiment while doing Pavel's business. He was a lone double agent. He played by the rules until he could be above the rules. Unfortunately, he got caught during the preparations.

[Ryusio and Namsoon's relationship]

At the start, it was clear he liked her strength and her strength made him put her at a pedestal because like I said, he is obsessed with strength. However, his fascination quickly turned into curiosity. He sees a sheltered, innocent girl whose views aren't warped by the world yet. She doesn't conform to the world. She speaks informally, she does what she wants, nothing can stop her from being who she is. Even when she knows he is her boss, she treats him like how she treats everyone else. That makes him content. Makes him happy. Makes him smile. Makes him laugh. He feels 'safe' with her when never felt safe with anyone except Binbin. He can fall asleep when she is around, he can relax, he can trust her to protect him when he never needed anyone's protection because he was always alone.

"It's just that I want to help you. I want you to be happier." [Episode 12] {45:13}

The way he treats her already shows how much he fell for her. He wanted to make her "happier". He wanted to help her any way he can. He does little things like ask permission to date her then get worried when she didn't show up. When he felt like he may have scared her away, he quickly apologise and said he is worried. He never wanted to pressure her. He self reflects on himself quickly. Other times when he fix her bag strap, take out anything that is in her hair shows that he is hyper focused on the little things because he likes her.

"When it comes to love and friendship, I'm still new to both. Those weren't options for me in the life I've led. But when I'm with you, friendship and love pique my interest." [Episode 12] {10:00}

"I've never opened up this much to anyone before." [Episode 12] {46:00}

He is new to everything but when he is around her, he WANTS to open up. He wants to let his guard down. He wants to explore options that never crossed his mind before which is why her betrayal destroyed him. Even on Episode 16, he described her as the woman he loved. (Accurate translation over the word "trust")

"I envy you. You inherited your strength and... were raised by nice parents." [Episode 10] {29:08}

The two things he wants. You envy people whose life you want. It's never the opposite. Heesik even said it. If he had parents, he would have turned out different.

[Ryushio dive in: is he evil?]

Out of the characters in this series, Ryushio is the only who wanted to change his life the most out of his own will. He wanted to leave and maybe listen to music. That makes him a morally grey character and not evil. I would like to highlight how he brought his biological dad, the one who abandoned and led him to a life of suffering, a store to live comfortably and to hide his antidote from Pavel there. You might say it's to hide his antidote but mind you, he didn't need to give it to his dad, he could have just given it to any random person if he wanted. That's a hint of how much he wants a family.

And it also proves his goals weren't to kill people. He wants to be free. He does many bad things but that's because he is not free. He never was.

"You're a light that's not sure if it's real or fake but could be real if it tried hard enough." Nam Soon to Ryushio [Episode 10] {34:10}

This quote is one of key points because Ryushio actually thinks about what she said after a while. He doesn't know where he stands. I personally believe if given the opportunity, he would have taken a different path in a heartbeat. We catch him a lot times reminising the past and we can tell he missed Binbin because he thinks or mentions him often. When he talks to Pavel, he is always in rage. Always angry. When your life have little control, you do anything in your power to gain that control and that's what he displays in a lot of his interaction. Even in his ending, instead of letting Pavel kill him or the police to catch him, he decided to "choose" his ending. To "control" his life one last time.

"When she lied about being our daughter and tried to kill Nam Soon, I thought the worst of her but I heard she kept Nam Soon's identity a secret. I guess people can change when given the chance." - Nam Soon's dad about Hwaja [Episode 15] {4:36}

People can change when given the chance. He wanted that chance. He just didn't beg them for help. He chose to take matters on his own hands. What makes his story compelling to the viewers is he might be a villain but he was a villain that wanted to be free. A villain that wanted to take the bigger evil from within. If a cop is undercover, he is the villain undercover too but his methods is as rotten as those who raised him because that's the even playing field. You have to be a little bit of evil to defeat the bigger evil.

"He once said that having just one person believe in him was all he needed in his life." Nam Soon to Heesik [Episode 16] {47:19}

This is the most important statement. It implies he could have changed drastically if one person believed him. Because if "one" person can make a big difference in one person's life then why not be that difference?

That's why people like him. He is a complex character. Not one dimensional.

Got 10.2 ratings because they are watching it. That's not the rating of the show, that's the amount of people tuning in. I'm sure internationally, this show got millions of viewers too but look at it now? Everyone calling it bad because they watched it. Not because they didn't watch it.

I never said he is taking revenge on Nam Soon behalf. I said Hwaja is not innocent since she tried to kill her and only stopped because she failed. I don't know how that makes me delusional when I never said anything that wasn't a factual fact.

Exactly. The reviews probably too harsh for newcomers but for most of us who been watching weekly, the disappointment was bigger because we had expectations. We came in thinking it was gonna be super good. People who have been warned, will not hate it the way most are because they been warned to lower than expectations with all these reviews.

You and me were basically living in the comment section 🤣 so of course you would remember.

He is not evil, he is morally grey. He is suppying it because Pavel put him as the head operator of the drugs and remember, traitors get the death execution so he chose to secretly destroy them once he becomes stronger than them because he can't ran away. If your mind is still fresh on episode 16, there is a phone call scene where Pavel panicked because they didn't have the antidote they didn't panick over the drugs but the antidote because that was his work that he wasn't willing to hand out. The people he killed was a corrupt cop, the Russia mafia people and Hwaja who wanted to kill Nam Soon before so yea, they are not that innocent. Him trying to kill the super heroes is just a ridiculous notch because they came after him. He is not killing people for the fun of it. That's what evil people do. He is going that route because he is pushed to a corner. Which all could be avoided if Nam Soon literally talked to him. She knew all he needed was someone to trust and still chose not to talk to him. The drugs victim are pavel's victims.

He is not pure evil. I'll make a character analysis later on why I think that is. You don't have to read it because I'll post it in the general comment.

Before episode 14 and 15, everyone was saying this was a bad show. Even the people who liked Ryusio were saying they were giving it a 4/10. Maybe before the ending, this would have been a 7.8/7.9 but you can go way back, I promise you, there were endless complaints. This getting 7.5 is putting it midly.

Also he didn't create the drugs, he created the antidote and it was mentioned multiple times. The drugs is Pavel's creation which he WANTED to destroy, mind you.

This made me laugh because if there is anyone who should be mad about the way this show ended, it SHOULD be the fans who like all the other characters except Ryushio. If I liked the cop with the bland personality of a rock, Nam Soon acting like a 5 year old, reducing all her superhuman strength, fast speed and high jumping into a damsel in distress at the end, the mom who stole the show while being the most annoying character in the whole show, the grandma stealing the romance spotlight and having more romance than the main leads, I would have given this show a 1 just from how they wrote all the characters trashy except Ryusio.

The irony about this? Not a single person in here can mention WHY this show is so good. Not a single person can give a proper review why this was good because they know it wasn't. So not only his lovers talk about Ryusio, his HATERS too can only talk about him. They have to mention him too because at the end, he stole the spotlight from everyone even the one who dislike him. They want to see his demise because he left the lasting impression. Not the other characters who you never mentioned.

Yup! Welcome.

I finished it lol It's up to interpretation would be a better wording.