![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
info.
DARLING, WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
gonna find you down in the wishin' well,
gonna find you down in the wishin' well.
cheol-gang is a highly corrupt but superficially normal (if intimidating) major in the north korean secret police and the primary antagonist of his canon. in addition to his work for the state security department, he's spent decades carefully arranging a network for himself by giving bribes to the majority of high command in the DPRK, killing witnesses, trafficking drugs into the country, harboring criminals, and arranging for the theft of artifacts.
maj. cho explicitly states in the series that he knows right from wrong and just doesn't give a shit; he was homeless and orphaned as a child and has no siblings, wife, friends, or children, so he takes major risks that he implies - perhaps dishonestly - that he wouldn't take otherwise. he's highly dangerous, manipulative, and threatening, and he generally shapes his opinions of people based on their usefulness to him. there are two instances of seemingly genuine deep attachments to other people in the show, although eventually he wiretaps and subsequently kills one of them to prevent his own arrest after their falling-out; my interpretation of the overall picture his behavior paints is that he's capable of genuinely caring about people who are very exceptional to him in some way - for example, the colonel whom the show implies helped him out of his childhood situation - but that such individuals, for a man like cheol-gang, only come around a handful of times over the course of a lifetime.
all of this said, cheol-gang comes with some major warnings - he's a Villain capital V and shows significant signs of antisocial personality disorder. he usually conducts himself in a reserved and formal manner around strangers; he's very calculating and has superb self-restraint, so he isn't likely to become violent in a mundane situation, but it should be noted that he's extremely vindictive and it's a possibility if your character gets him upset enough or slights him in a way he finds unacceptable.
if he gets into a fight with an unarmed character who isn't trained, it's likely based on canon that he'll be able to deal some injuries. cheol-gang's 5'8 but shown to be strong, agile, and flexible, with professional training in martial arts and very quick reaction times. he has little respect for personal space as it's defined by his own culture and is usually the one to lash out first with little indication that he's about to hit/punch/strike the person in question, which gives him the further advantage of surprise in many of his fights.
although he talks about his horrific childhood very nonchalantly, i do think he has a lot of very deeply repressed trauma stemming from that, and it seeps out in his actions and personal dysfunction. cheol-gang doesn't bond normally (and almost doesn't bond at all) and very much has a 'might makes right' mentality that's further aggravated by the fact that his superiors hit/punch/kick him and other high ranking field officers when they do wrong; i write him as highly touch-averse in light of the lack of touch in his upbringing and the fact that he only ever touches other characters to harm/intimidate (and they only ever touch him for the same reason).
he also comes with a disclaimer that the show, although reviewed by some north korean expats, doesn't offer a completely accurate depiction of the DPRK, and was produced in south korea under the national security act, which regulates how north korea must be shown. i do my best to be realistic in my depictions, but i am not korean by nationality or heritage, so please don't hesitate to lmk in the screened comments of this post if i get anything wrong or if i make any mistakes with north korean culture. also, korean isn't one of my languages and i am still learning how it's romanized, so apologies in advance for any inconsistencies! i usually go off of what netflix's subtitles tell me, and when there are inconsistencies, i default to the north korea's Romanization of Korean format to reflect the way that cheol-gang would translate it were he actually thinking/writing in english. if you notice an error and have the time, please don't hesitate to lmk! thanks!
gonna find you down in the wishin' well,
gonna find you down in the wishin' well.
cheol-gang is a highly corrupt but superficially normal (if intimidating) major in the north korean secret police and the primary antagonist of his canon. in addition to his work for the state security department, he's spent decades carefully arranging a network for himself by giving bribes to the majority of high command in the DPRK, killing witnesses, trafficking drugs into the country, harboring criminals, and arranging for the theft of artifacts.
maj. cho explicitly states in the series that he knows right from wrong and just doesn't give a shit; he was homeless and orphaned as a child and has no siblings, wife, friends, or children, so he takes major risks that he implies - perhaps dishonestly - that he wouldn't take otherwise. he's highly dangerous, manipulative, and threatening, and he generally shapes his opinions of people based on their usefulness to him. there are two instances of seemingly genuine deep attachments to other people in the show, although eventually he wiretaps and subsequently kills one of them to prevent his own arrest after their falling-out; my interpretation of the overall picture his behavior paints is that he's capable of genuinely caring about people who are very exceptional to him in some way - for example, the colonel whom the show implies helped him out of his childhood situation - but that such individuals, for a man like cheol-gang, only come around a handful of times over the course of a lifetime.
all of this said, cheol-gang comes with some major warnings - he's a Villain capital V and shows significant signs of antisocial personality disorder. he usually conducts himself in a reserved and formal manner around strangers; he's very calculating and has superb self-restraint, so he isn't likely to become violent in a mundane situation, but it should be noted that he's extremely vindictive and it's a possibility if your character gets him upset enough or slights him in a way he finds unacceptable.
if he gets into a fight with an unarmed character who isn't trained, it's likely based on canon that he'll be able to deal some injuries. cheol-gang's 5'8 but shown to be strong, agile, and flexible, with professional training in martial arts and very quick reaction times. he has little respect for personal space as it's defined by his own culture and is usually the one to lash out first with little indication that he's about to hit/punch/strike the person in question, which gives him the further advantage of surprise in many of his fights.
although he talks about his horrific childhood very nonchalantly, i do think he has a lot of very deeply repressed trauma stemming from that, and it seeps out in his actions and personal dysfunction. cheol-gang doesn't bond normally (and almost doesn't bond at all) and very much has a 'might makes right' mentality that's further aggravated by the fact that his superiors hit/punch/kick him and other high ranking field officers when they do wrong; i write him as highly touch-averse in light of the lack of touch in his upbringing and the fact that he only ever touches other characters to harm/intimidate (and they only ever touch him for the same reason).
he also comes with a disclaimer that the show, although reviewed by some north korean expats, doesn't offer a completely accurate depiction of the DPRK, and was produced in south korea under the national security act, which regulates how north korea must be shown. i do my best to be realistic in my depictions, but i am not korean by nationality or heritage, so please don't hesitate to lmk in the screened comments of this post if i get anything wrong or if i make any mistakes with north korean culture. also, korean isn't one of my languages and i am still learning how it's romanized, so apologies in advance for any inconsistencies! i usually go off of what netflix's subtitles tell me, and when there are inconsistencies, i default to the north korea's Romanization of Korean format to reflect the way that cheol-gang would translate it were he actually thinking/writing in english. if you notice an error and have the time, please don't hesitate to lmk! thanks!