My ID Is Gangnam Beauty - Ch. 63 - Sooah (1)

[MangaDex]

 

[Yamibi]

dont drop on me that sad story i wont filch

 

[JordanFurneaux]

I'm sorry but this does not remotely justify her actions, it might make me sympathise with her slightly but she is still hasn't become redeemable as far as i'm concerned. Having had a difficult life isn't an excuse to treat other unrelated people like shit.

 

[nanze]

The flaw with these sad stories to make the villain seem sympathetic is it requires new, unjustifiable, villains anyway. So any message that there is reason behind cruelty sort of fails, because the reason was someone else's unreasonable cruelty.

Also having bad things happen to you doesn't make your actions to innocents justifiable.

 

[MacMeaties]

Try again.

 

[sporkaganza]

The flaw with these sad stories to make the villain seem sympathetic is it requires new, unjustifiable, villains anyway. So any message that there is reason behind cruelty sort of fails, because the reason was someone else's unreasonable cruelty.

Um, have any of you paid attention to the themes of this story at all or what? That's the whole point. From like, page one, the story has been about how fucked up it is that society only cares about appearances and status, and about how cruelty breeds cruelty. That your takeaway is "nice try making the villain look sympathetic!" means that... well, you read too much manga TBH

 

[ojoudere]

"they're both bullied" but mirae has such supportive/doting parents that made her grow up to be a cheerful/brave kid when she first got bullied she could stand up for herself unlike sooah who was abandoned by her parents she never tried to fight back the bullies as if she's learned the truth that she's supposed to be treated like trash by others

 

[Siena]

I literally thought Sooha was actually a boy at first omg

 

[Exlce]

Did the kids at school just bully her because she was dirty? That’s kind of stupid and not that believable. You’d think the author would have came up with a better sob story for her, if this is trying to make us feel sympathy for her.

 

[relic626]

Heh soo she got bullied for being dirty and even though she had the means to do it she never showered properly because she "didn't" know what to do?
Man why author made this in't multiple chapters? One chapter is already too much.

 

[MacMeaties]

@sporkaganza.

Nah two people can have access to exactly the same information and both fully understand it but come to completely different conclusions. Someone disagreeing with your assessment of something doesn't mean they don't get it nor that they are wrong, though that's a pretty common conflation these days.

 

[Deoxyribo9]

But yea it plays into this whole theme of the manga. I mean its more pity points then sympathy points because you can see how with the change of apperance that everyone's feelings change. Which affects how she lashes out in the present. Is she still a bitch? Yeah. But I don't think she's asking for forgiveness. At this point its all about how she's going to fall further.

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

I have to say I think @sporkaganza does have a point. At the same time, I've read so many, many manga/manhwa/webtoons/whatnot where it spends ages showing some antagonist acting like a total creep but then does this exculpatory backstory and reconciliation gig, and it's usually pretty goddamn forced, and it generally gives the impression that the author can't stand for anyone to be really bad, and @nanze is right that it just pushes things back to the next generation of bullying, so in theory we could have those bullies' backstory and their bullies' backstory all the way to Og the cave girl's backstory or maybe the Eden serpent's backstory where God kicked sand in his face. Although I suppose there's nothing really illegitimate about saying yeah, everything does go back forever and things really are always fucked up because they were fucked up before--bringing us back to sporkaganza. I just find it hard to feel the "theme" stuff relating to this particular toon when the maneuver is so generic.
I'm also kind of . . . her backstory is so harsh it seems like typical Korean overkill more than like a plausible backstory for that girl. Not that real people don't experience such things . . . but as an explanation for someone being a typical social-maneuvering snippy bitch it seems like an odd mismatch. People with that kind of background are likely to be bad screwed up, but kind of unlikely to be expert social manipulators; the over-the-top bid for sympathy is cutting against my suspension of disbelief.

@ojoudere: Have we seen anything much about mirae's parents, or her being cheerful/brave or standing up to anything? Most of the back bits I remember show her rather the opposite.

 

[RedPancakes]

I feel like Sooah's backstory is getting more fleshed out than Mirae's and Kyungsuk's as the chapters go on. We don't know anything about Mirae's parents. I only remember seeing one picture with them in the earlier chapters. I think these chapters would be better used to develop the characters readers actually care about like Mirae's friend or Kyungsuk's mom. Or even just more development with the two main characters. Sooah's been a side character the entire story and as her use in the story comes to the close, she's still an uninteresting character even if she is Mirae's foil. Now, she's just an uninteresting side character with a sad past. Maybe it would have helped if her backstory was inserted later on and more condensed during the climax where it would be more impactful.

I feel like the whole purpose of Sooah's backstory is to show how compassionate and forgiving Mirae's going to be at the end of it like in a lot shoujo manga with girl bullies or with some underdog protagonists. Showing Mirae's compassion could have been done a different way if Mirae does forgive Sooah to the point of becoming friends with her. This direction kind of takes away from the confidence and dignity that Mirae is building for herself and makes her less relatable. Otherwise, I don't understand where this all is going and why we need to know about Sooah at all.

 

[kronix]

the author is trying to make us feel sorry for this dumb cunt. jesus are you really gonna give more background story to some supporting / rival character than your own fucking main characters? THIS IS THE TIME TO START THE FUCKING ROMANCE WE WAITED 60 MOTHER FUCKING CHAPTERS HURRY THE FUCK UP AND GO BACK TO COUPLE

 

[notos]

@Exlce

Did the kids at school just bully her because she was dirty? That’s kind of stupid and not that believable. You’d think the author would have came up with a better sob story for her, if this is trying to make us feel sympathy for her.

dude, did you ever go to middle or high school? I've seen people get bullied for less, and remember this is supposed to be Korea. Korea's bullying is hardcore

 

[ojoudere]

@Purplelibraryguy huh they didn't show it on the webtoon? mirae's parents play big role on the live-action drama they are her emotional support and mirae did stand up for herself before eventually gave up because the bullying only got worse the more she resisted. i watched the drama first then read the webtoon here i can tell that sooah has experienced both of mirae (was bullied at school) and kyungsuk (was from a broken home) painful childhood.

 

[sporkaganza]

I'll agree that the backstory seems kind of disproportionate to how Sooah actually behaves. You'd expect it for a really cruel or unstable character, not a somewhat manipulative girl who wants to be popular.

the author is trying to make us feel sorry for this dumb c*nt. jesus are you really gonna give more background story to some supporting / rival character than your own fucking main characters? THIS IS THE TIME TO START THE FUCKING ROMANCE WE WAITED 60 MOTHER FUCKING CHAPTERS HURRY THE FUCK UP AND GO BACK TO COUPLE

WTF is wrong with you? Gross

 

[Kie]

Children are pretty cruel, and being bullied for simply smelling weird/bad is pretty common, especially since at that age kids are willing to pick on you for no reason. I don't like Sooah, nor do I think her past justifies her current actions. However, being neglected and abused by your own parents, and then having the result of that neglect be the reason why you are bullied makes for a really shitty time. It's not really over the top, for me that Sooah didn't know how to shower; not learning basic personal hygiene because you were never taught is a thing common with kids who grew up in abusive/neglectful households. Actually, that, and general "dirtiness" or dirty appearances, is a common sign of child abuse that teachers, social workers, doctors, and other trained professionals look are taught to look for.

That being said, abused children who grow up usually learn how to pick up emotional/social cues more readily than others because they don't want to be abused anymore. People-pleasing is a big thing for those who've been abused (you can find a lot of literature on this), and it might be why Sooah - rather than bring unstable or cruel - manipulates. Being abused as a child leads to different behaviours as an adult, and not all adults who were formerly abused become villainous and terrorizing, harsh and violent.

I hope, though, that the author really doesn't show Mirae forgiving Sooah wholly and being and sparkles with her. Sooah was insidious and harmful, and I think Mirae deserves friendship with people much more than someone like Sooah who is still trying to justify shitty actions. Sure, more time on other characters would be very nice, as well as more development for Mirae and Kyungsuk, but I think in light of the time we also spent exploring Kyungsuk's mother's past, Sooah getting a handful of chapters isn't something so bad. For Mirae, at least, Sooah was/is still someone who affected her first few months at university a lot, and so that deserves some recognition as well.

 

[tama7315666]

@ojoudere there is a different between drama and webtoon. In drama, we see that Mirae has the support of her parents (her mother as least, and her father love her as well although he objected to her surgery) and her best friend from high school. But in webtoon, they didn't show any of that, all I know was her parents went against her surgery and told her to go make money and do it herself (in the first chapter) and there is no best friend character, so basically she has no one for support in the webtoon