A Dae Gil ramble
Jan. 28th, 2010 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieFirst off, let me start off by thanking the makers for realizing that Dae Gil angst looks better naked.
You know, Dae Gil might be cynical, hard-bitten and be a member of a repellent profession (there are few things as despicable as slave-catching), but he is a complete pushover when it comes to women. I don't mean in a Wong Son "chasing every skirt you see" kind of way. No, I think due to his love for (not to say obsession with) Un Nyun, women are a total soft spot.
In the first ep, he breaks into that noble's house and frees that mother and daughter slated for torture and sexual abuse. He agrees to take in Sul Hwa, the runaway hooker, and is generally rather nice to her - letting her ride his horse when she complains about WS grabbing her, carrying her when she is drunk. Not to mention that I am no slave-catcher but I wouldn't want to buy back/rescue someone who has sold all my stuff and drank it away the way Sul Hwa did and yet Dae Gil totally rescues her again in ep 8 and brings her back despite the other slave hunters' objections.
Even with the mysterious (to him) woman travelling with Tae Ha. He throws a knife - but it is to wound her to slow TH down, not to kill her, which is a consideration I am not sure many a slave-hunter would make.
I really think his rescues are tied to his feelings for Un Nyun - the drama really highlights that - after he rescues the slave mother/daughter pair, it's then that we first see Un Nyun - he flashbacks to her as he is walking away. And when Sul Hwa is being dragged away by her former owners in ep 8, he flashbacks to UN being dragged away during the Manchu invasion.
Anything truly good he does he does because of Un Nyun. Which is pretty darn romantic. And also rather ironic - I remember the scene where the other slave hunters wonder why on earth Tae Ha, who is wounded and on the run, took time off from his travel to go to the grave of his Prince. And DG explains, with a sneer, that TH is an aristocrat and aristocrats need a cause even if it kills them. Only guess what. DG is a former aristocrat and his cause is UN and he is more obsessed over her than TH would ever be about his Prince.
This sort of leads me to letting go/holding on. If you think about it, all 3 main characters lost their loved one(s) around the same time - Tae Ha's wife and baby were killed in the Manchu invasion and that is when UN's brother saved her from DG's evil family and DG lost her/UN believes her lover died. So TH is about in the best position to advise about moving on to UN who is precisely in the same boat as he is (lost a loved one at the same time, or at least so she thinks). But it's interesting that DG never even thinks about moving on - yes, he knows UN is alive somewhere, but still - his fixation is romantic, no doubt, but it's also the sign of how broken and how trapped in his past he is. Part of the reason he cannot move on is because there is nothing for him to move on to - if he gave up the past, he'd be forced to realize just how awful his current existence truly is. Tae Ha needs his cause to function and Dae Gil needs his.
You know, Dae Gil might be cynical, hard-bitten and be a member of a repellent profession (there are few things as despicable as slave-catching), but he is a complete pushover when it comes to women. I don't mean in a Wong Son "chasing every skirt you see" kind of way. No, I think due to his love for (not to say obsession with) Un Nyun, women are a total soft spot.
In the first ep, he breaks into that noble's house and frees that mother and daughter slated for torture and sexual abuse. He agrees to take in Sul Hwa, the runaway hooker, and is generally rather nice to her - letting her ride his horse when she complains about WS grabbing her, carrying her when she is drunk. Not to mention that I am no slave-catcher but I wouldn't want to buy back/rescue someone who has sold all my stuff and drank it away the way Sul Hwa did and yet Dae Gil totally rescues her again in ep 8 and brings her back despite the other slave hunters' objections.
Even with the mysterious (to him) woman travelling with Tae Ha. He throws a knife - but it is to wound her to slow TH down, not to kill her, which is a consideration I am not sure many a slave-hunter would make.
I really think his rescues are tied to his feelings for Un Nyun - the drama really highlights that - after he rescues the slave mother/daughter pair, it's then that we first see Un Nyun - he flashbacks to her as he is walking away. And when Sul Hwa is being dragged away by her former owners in ep 8, he flashbacks to UN being dragged away during the Manchu invasion.
Anything truly good he does he does because of Un Nyun. Which is pretty darn romantic. And also rather ironic - I remember the scene where the other slave hunters wonder why on earth Tae Ha, who is wounded and on the run, took time off from his travel to go to the grave of his Prince. And DG explains, with a sneer, that TH is an aristocrat and aristocrats need a cause even if it kills them. Only guess what. DG is a former aristocrat and his cause is UN and he is more obsessed over her than TH would ever be about his Prince.
This sort of leads me to letting go/holding on. If you think about it, all 3 main characters lost their loved one(s) around the same time - Tae Ha's wife and baby were killed in the Manchu invasion and that is when UN's brother saved her from DG's evil family and DG lost her/UN believes her lover died. So TH is about in the best position to advise about moving on to UN who is precisely in the same boat as he is (lost a loved one at the same time, or at least so she thinks). But it's interesting that DG never even thinks about moving on - yes, he knows UN is alive somewhere, but still - his fixation is romantic, no doubt, but it's also the sign of how broken and how trapped in his past he is. Part of the reason he cannot move on is because there is nothing for him to move on to - if he gave up the past, he'd be forced to realize just how awful his current existence truly is. Tae Ha needs his cause to function and Dae Gil needs his.
