![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
notes.
vitals (i will make this pretty later i prommy)
- 51
- gay, unmarried. no children. he's not super open about it, but he also doesn't go to any effort to create the impression that he's heterosexual and is comfortable in his own sexuality - there's a distinct lack of women in his life where most people in his position surround themselves with them, he keeps a framed photo of himself and his deceased male best friend on his desk, and he was certainly very physically affectionate with said friend while he was still alive. he's reached a position of power such that he could have someone killed for so much as suggesting that he's gay, but generally i think it's something of an open secret.
- ceo of hotel liber, a cover operation for dongcheon, south korea's most powerful drug/organized crime syndicate. it specializes predominantly in the trafficking of laboratory-produced methamphetamine. joined when he was 17, now the leader.
- the police canonically don't have enough to arrest him, and he knows it. operates with a level of impunity and has multiple people within the police department. has a level of disdain for them, and no fear.
- extremely talented fighter, both hand-to-hand and with a knife. the only fight he loses is lost because he doesn't realize the gun he's holding isn't loaded - after successfully almost killing his opponent despite being drunk.
- cool, formal, and collected. doesn't really lose his temper. he has an air of professionalism wherever he goes, and is capable of very calculated cruelty. can and does kill without remorse. all of this said - he's sensitive to perceived slights, deeply emotional behind the veneer of composure. as one of his subordinates says, he takes revenge/betrayal personally, and he wants to be the one to see the life leave the eyes of people who have hurt him. his reactions to said betrayals are extreme and violent.
spoilers from here on out!
notes on interpretation/the more subjective parts of canon—
- i do think that mu-jin was being sincere in his moments of kindness toward ji-woo despite using her, and i do think that he truly liked her and took the 'betrayal' very personally. he very much strikes me as the kind of person who can compartmentalize behaviors that hurt the people he cares about (like manipulating her) while simultaneously being genuine in feelings of affection. as i write him, he expected her to find out eventually but figured that by the time she did she'd already be loyal enough to him for it not to matter - hence his shock and genuine distress when she turns, despite it being obvious that she would do so from the viewer's perspective.
- i think he was/still is in love with yoon donghoon, even after the betrayal - donghoon did the unthinkable, but that doesn't erase the fact that a) he saved mu-jin's life and b) they were deeply bonded for a decade. if you look closely he starts to shed a few tears when he kills him - it's something that has to be done, and i think he does genuinely want/emotionally need revenge, but it's never a position that he wanted to be in to begin with. this also explains why he kills pil-do instead of ji-woo - he wants to make her feel what it's like to lose somebody that you love - and why he takes her insistence that she knows what it will be like to kill someone so personally in the first episode.
- ultimately - i just don't think it's possible to flawlessly pretend to feel so many things for so many years around so many different people/cry on command with nobody around, and that instead of it all being one big ruse my take is that he's just a person with deeply conflicting wants/needs/responsibilities.
- 51
- gay, unmarried. no children. he's not super open about it, but he also doesn't go to any effort to create the impression that he's heterosexual and is comfortable in his own sexuality - there's a distinct lack of women in his life where most people in his position surround themselves with them, he keeps a framed photo of himself and his deceased male best friend on his desk, and he was certainly very physically affectionate with said friend while he was still alive. he's reached a position of power such that he could have someone killed for so much as suggesting that he's gay, but generally i think it's something of an open secret.
- ceo of hotel liber, a cover operation for dongcheon, south korea's most powerful drug/organized crime syndicate. it specializes predominantly in the trafficking of laboratory-produced methamphetamine. joined when he was 17, now the leader.
- the police canonically don't have enough to arrest him, and he knows it. operates with a level of impunity and has multiple people within the police department. has a level of disdain for them, and no fear.
- extremely talented fighter, both hand-to-hand and with a knife. the only fight he loses is lost because he doesn't realize the gun he's holding isn't loaded - after successfully almost killing his opponent despite being drunk.
- cool, formal, and collected. doesn't really lose his temper. he has an air of professionalism wherever he goes, and is capable of very calculated cruelty. can and does kill without remorse. all of this said - he's sensitive to perceived slights, deeply emotional behind the veneer of composure. as one of his subordinates says, he takes revenge/betrayal personally, and he wants to be the one to see the life leave the eyes of people who have hurt him. his reactions to said betrayals are extreme and violent.
spoilers from here on out!
notes on interpretation/the more subjective parts of canon—
- i do think that mu-jin was being sincere in his moments of kindness toward ji-woo despite using her, and i do think that he truly liked her and took the 'betrayal' very personally. he very much strikes me as the kind of person who can compartmentalize behaviors that hurt the people he cares about (like manipulating her) while simultaneously being genuine in feelings of affection. as i write him, he expected her to find out eventually but figured that by the time she did she'd already be loyal enough to him for it not to matter - hence his shock and genuine distress when she turns, despite it being obvious that she would do so from the viewer's perspective.
- i think he was/still is in love with yoon donghoon, even after the betrayal - donghoon did the unthinkable, but that doesn't erase the fact that a) he saved mu-jin's life and b) they were deeply bonded for a decade. if you look closely he starts to shed a few tears when he kills him - it's something that has to be done, and i think he does genuinely want/emotionally need revenge, but it's never a position that he wanted to be in to begin with. this also explains why he kills pil-do instead of ji-woo - he wants to make her feel what it's like to lose somebody that you love - and why he takes her insistence that she knows what it will be like to kill someone so personally in the first episode.
- ultimately - i just don't think it's possible to flawlessly pretend to feel so many things for so many years around so many different people/cry on command with nobody around, and that instead of it all being one big ruse my take is that he's just a person with deeply conflicting wants/needs/responsibilities.