question / askal, it he & masc terms. study group pilled. i love gamin yoon! i am unstable and a risk to everyone and myself. hi via! new owner btw! not via
hi study group ramblings here hehe go here if you want to hear my yumeship insanities
SPOILERS AHEAD!! You have been warned.
Plot.
Our main character, Gamin Yoon, has only one goal in his life: to go to college. Simple enough, right? There's one problem though. He sucks at studying. No matter how hard he tries, he just couldn't seem to get his grades up, so his previous tutor—now turned teacher—Hankyeong Lee suggests that he forms a study group filled with like-minded individuals that want to improve themselves. Here comes another problem. The school he goes to, Yusung Technical High is notorious for being overrun by gang members, most prominently White Lead (YB) which is run by Yeonbaek Phi, father of Hanwul Pi who also happens to be in the school. Suffice to say that with an environment of constant violence and a hierarchy that squashes the helpless under its feet, it's hard to get some actual studying going on in the place. But Gamin is not one to give up easily.
Introduction.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏I'm currently inching my way near the end of S1 for Study Group (SG) and I really like it so far. The stakes have been raised as it's not only Gamin who's affected by his attempts to disrupt White Lead (YB)'s operations but also the people he cherishes: his friends, teacher and even his mother. Here we see a drastic change in attitude from our main character, from being calm and relatively unbothered to absolutely fucking livid when his mother gets injured by Anti's ambush in the café. This is when he takes the gloves off and ravages every single enemy in sight, his personality doing a complete 180 along with him. It amazes me how that much power is hidden in such a calm, collected and relatively harmless guy. I wonder if there's a reason for that or that's just a part of his character.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏I am curious though—when will we get to see a fight where Gamin is actually on par based on skill with someone? I assume they're saving that up for Hanwul but I can't help but think that every single honcho guy that serves as Gamin's punching bag of the chapter is just easy pickings for someone as OP as him. Of course, there's a perfect explanation for that in the universe; these gang members such as Gyujin, Homin and Jaesung underestimate him due to his relatively quiet demeanor and nonconfrontational appearance. Gamin did not fight unless he was pushed to by external circumstances, so the blame is wholly on the perpetrators.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏My favorite character so far in this arc has to be Sunchul Kim, the previous student council president. Up to the café arc, I never really expected much depth to the antagonists—like Hyeonwoo Lee for example. I always thought he was just a one-off thing. I don't exactly think his purpose in the story was utilized properly (in short, I didn't like how SG handled his story and lowkey just tossed him out the window once they were done) and I think Sunchul Kim is a better example of a 'delinquent rehabilitating himself' story. We meet Hyeonwoo in the middle of his story when he is deep into the gang, our first encounter with him was literally a fight scene between him and Gamin, whereas for Sunchul, we see his character entrenched in this deeply violent environment holding a bundle of flashcards with a bunch of English words written on them. Hyeonwoo's introduction to me in the story left a bad taste in my mouth even with the context provided, meanwhile Sunchul was introduced with that one caveat of his that got readers (including me) to root for him in the first place.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏As much as I love this whole trope, I really hope they don't use this sort of thing on Hanwul's character in order to garner sympathy for him. The man's a whole beast and so are the other three that make up the White Lead Quartet. It's evident with the way they run the hierarchy that they are extremely ruthless and make use of people in order to gain the upper hand without much care. There's nothing in the story that points to absolution being a possibility but I am worried as stories have a habit of washing down their evil characters in order to create some misunderstood villain. No, Hanwul is not a misunderstood villain, he is a piece of shit who wants to take over his father's criminal business even when he wishes the opposite for his son. He is the spawn of the devil and I will stand true on that. I started to talk about this because of something I've heard from an acquaintance of mine where he apparently gets a redemption arc. He does not need a redemption arc, what he needs desperately is his downfall arc. I want him to crash and burn and die, basically. If you read the manhwa, you'd get me.
EP 77 / Chinatown Arc
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏I expected more from Siwan, but I suppose having someone beat Gamin before he faces this Youngchun guy* would make for an anticlimactic twist. He was really getting hyped up as the one that would have the most chance at bringing Gamin to his knees (he literally beat Gunyeob and Sunchul) but then some technicality made him win. I wonder why the people in Chinatown hate Yusung Tech. Could it be connected to Minhwan's father, Cheondeuk? Has he done something to the town that the people disliked so much to the point of attacking anyone who mentions it? Hmm.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏All those things aside, I wish we could see Siwan in the study group itself. It's a long shot and I'm pretty sure I'm airballing at this point but the parallels SG draws between him and Gamin make me think that they'd be great study buddies if they weren't enemies. Maybe SG will mention Siwan's grades someday and find a way to incorporate him into the story itself. For now though, that'll have to remain a theory as they're both on opposing factions.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏* I was wrong. Youngchun is a woman (not that it changes anything). I've always found her fine regardless though. #GILF.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ Episode 83 got me nervous for a second. Thank God they didn't kill my goat or I literally would've dropped this series in its entirety. Oh, and my suspicions were correct. Gamin sided with Siwan. Hopefully he gets that boy out of the gutter he's in (and maybe even join the group? 👀 Airballing here again.)
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ MA'AM YOUNGCHUN IS SO FINE. Anyway, my assumptions were correct, Siwan might have a chance of joining the group which I love to see. He might be the only person who is slightly close to leveling with Gamin's strength aside from Sunchul, but he's still a long way ahead from being on his level.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏STUDY GROUPIANS. WE WIN. SIWAN IS JOINING. God, he's genuinely so fine with his hair down. Maybe it's just me and guys with long hair but that shit is so hot dude. I need to find a screencap of him with his hair down. nvm. he's becoming an actor. i support him regardless.
͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ ͏͏͏ I'm going to lose my proper grammar for a second because I'm so mad. I'm on episode 112 of SG and honestly, the tension in the fight between Gamin and Hanwul is so fucking high that I worry this was all for nothing. and you're gonna tell me he's gonna become a supporting character? I FUCKING HATE THAT BITCH. i dont know why they'd make him a sort of side character for s2 when the right thing to do should be to kick him to the side. how do you even go about redeeming him?? I DONT UNDERSTAND. HE NEEDS TO DIE. HE NEEDS TO DIEEEEEEEE. KILL THAT WHITE DEVIL.
I'M SORRY FOR SLANDERING YOUR NAME HYEONWOO LEE.
wair what the fuck what do you mena he didnt do that. OM GONNA DIE I'VE SEEN THE TWIST FROM A MILE AWAY FROM HOW IT WAS GOING BUT GOD WDYM I KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO REDEEM HIM BRUH UFHDJRNFIRNEKNDNENEJWDBF IM GONNA DIEEEEEEEEEEEE IM GONNA JUMP
gunyeob please come back to us oh my goddddd. on another note i really dont know how to feel about his character as he is perpetuating the harmful acts of YB in order to climb the ranks and get closer to Yeonbaek Pi and i feel like that's how morally gray characters should be. like you dont agree with what they're doing but at the same time you can see where they're coming from. gunyeob i miss you come back to us pls???? pls. plssss. i miss you