evil-women-step-on-me

[evil-women-step-on-me]

Ah, I understand what you mean a lot better now. And your critique is fair. I haven't read another story about a crime syndicate producing super drugs from children before, so to me it wasn't a recurring plot point- if it's a common theme among a lot of stories you've read, I totally understand why you find it annoying.

It feels designed to make the fictional criminals seem as evil as possible, especially when the drugs being dealt are the Evil Drugs that you get by either exaggerating the effects of real drugs or making stuff up.

The reason why I had a knee-jerk objection to your og post is the sides of good/evil in Hand Jumper are pretty loosely defined, with most characters and organizations not falling 100% into one category or the other. For example:

And this introduction barely tells us anything about the Begonia Group. We don't learn about their leaders' personalities or Gifts or names or anything. We don't learn about their other activities, or their headquarters, or what kind of people they recruit.

Butcher and Minnie (the pig and mouse mask people from Season 1) were the first members of the Begonia Group to be introduced, and though they came off as extraordinarily evil in their first appearance, that impression softened and became much more complex when their personalities/relationship were fleshed out more afterwards. The same goes for Samin and her gang, and Taeho, who at first seemed like he was going to be the designated bully-that-hates-the-MC-for-petty-reasons character, and then turned out to be fairly reasonable. IMO there just haven't been any two-dimensional villains in the series whose whole purpose is to be as evil as possible, so I have my doubts that that's how the Begonia Group will be portrayed.

But then again, those are just my own expectations. It's entirely possible that the author will disappoint them, maybe in the next four chapters even, since I haven't read the Fast Pass chapters lol- I'm operating on information from the free chapters only.

The Begonia Group's (cliche) Crimes

Okay, nuance first. Drug dealing is a common way for crime syndicates to make money, and human trafficking is way more common than it should be. And there's some effort made to distinguish this from most fictional drug/human traffickers by mixing in some unique elements of Hand Jumper's setting. And Webtoon's format makes it tricky to get screenshots of the relevant bits of exposition.

But I'm kinda tired of drugs and human trafficking (and sometimes protection rackets) being all the business-crime that fictional gangs participate in. There are plenty of other kinds of crime, you know? There's other kinds of contraband, smuggling legal items to avoid tariffs and such, prostitution that doesn't involve human trafficking, several varieties of illegal gambling, fencing stolen goods, money laundering, other kinds of white-collar crime, and plenty of stuff that I can't think of off the top of my head.

But it's always drugs and human trafficking, and usually versions that make them more "dramatic" to the expected audience. This is really easy to explain for human trafficking.

Fictional depictions usually show the criminals kidnapping people in affluent areas for nefarious purposes; sex slavery if they're boring, some supernatural or soft-sci-fi gimmick if they're trying not to be boring. In the real world, human trafficking usually involves taking desperate people from poor places to rich places, usually willingly (or by lying to them about the destination/cost of their journey). Human trafficking sometimes ends in sex slavery, but can also end in other kinds of forced labor, and in some cases it can be closer to illegal immigration than slavery.

None of this nuance or variety exists in pop culture human trafficking. And this doesn't just give people an inaccurate understanding of crimes that affect real people; it's also repetitive. Hand Jumper is not the only East Asian comic where some people have unique superpowers where a white-haired kid with superpowers was kidnapped by a crime syndicate and had his blood extracted to manufacture a substance which messes with the source of those superpowers. And My Hero Academia also has an illegal drug which makes people stronger with health consequences, though it's separate from the stuff made from Eri's blood.

This trope isn't an effective way to depict real-world organized crime, or even to construct dramatic scenarios out of parts of what those criminals do. It feels designed to make the fictional criminals seem as evil as possible, especially when the drugs being dealt are the Evil Drugs that you get by either exaggerating the effects of real drugs or making stuff up.

Which is pretty silly. There are other ways to make us think your fictional mafia are bad guys.

#hand jumper #response

[evil-women-step-on-me]

Kim Kitsuragi the man of all time!!!!!! Using him as motivation to draw studies

[evil-women-step-on-me]

I adore Annabel, but I'm sorry, Sayeon is genuinely unhinged.

#hand jumper

[evil-women-step-on-me]

hand jumper coming back with a bang! great chapter, so much wrong with her

does she really think the first five seconds of her friends reactions to the truth are enough to judge them? they need to process those news, i think at the very least she should get ryujin on board, since she already hates the corps. just let her digest that thing, give your reasoning and investigation results, she would surelly come around, maybe even contribute information. not the kind of conversation you have in 5 seconds, it's the curse of save scumming in real life, love to see it.

#hand jumper #hehehe

[evil-women-step-on-me]

literally just finished the min playlist and this got me by the balls

So! Backstory!

I imagine the Rapture lab as a very sterile, white compound. For angst reasons that may eventually be made clear.

[evil-women-step-on-me]

The revelations about Min in the recent Hand Jumper episodes have me thinking about the playlist Sleepacross made for him. Specifically this song. Yeah, seriously, there is a real actual Vocaloid song in Min's official playlist.

The intro/chorus translated:

I’ve been hurt so many times and left with a gaping wide hole inside so I pulled a needle through it to shut it tight Holding fast 'til the end of so many days Shutting my mouth no matter how heavy it was Tried to hold on ’til I started to break apart

I was too worn out to be good enough, I guess Before I’m ripped apart, I say goodbye, looking just a little reluctant to part Despite being hurt so many times, this face and this body, they can still be used Don’t throw me away. All I ask is that you don't just give me up to someone else I was too worn out to be good enough

........

.....................Samin.............

...........What are you doing to this poor boy's heart????

#hand jumper #min woo #song is called The Desolation of Spring #his playlist is my least favorite to listen to but the most interesting to analyze #seriously it gets really weird #samin's love monologue hits different when you consider that min is basically like an adoptive little brother to her #does min resent sayeon for taking up all of samin's love? #does he resent sayeon for not appreciating what she has? #Spotify

[evil-women-step-on-me]

the preview for hand jumper season 2 depicts our Perfectly Normal™ protagonist using her time powers to remove evidence of her mental illnesses from the timeline . ; who needs therapy when you can ████████ ██████████████ ██████████ ███ ?

[evil-women-step-on-me]

Art trade for oomfie i loooveeeee u

[evil-women-step-on-me]

she's so <3333

would yuo like to doodle juni my friend juni my beloved

juni !!!! <333

[evil-women-step-on-me]

Holy shit.

i hope they die

#hand jumper #sayjin #screaming crying throwing up

[evil-women-step-on-me]

Sleepacross has an official Sayeon playlist on Spotify, but it's super short.

Anyone have good Sayeon Lee songs?

Trying to put together a character playlist but I´ve only got 2 songs that kinda fit and the rest are really big reaches. Would love any suggestions

#Spotify

[evil-women-step-on-me]

much blood....

[evil-women-step-on-me]

eurghhhh great write-up. sayeon makes this series for me, basically. I wonder how many other burnt-out 'perfect' kids who are now all grown up and out of school look at her and go wow, too relatable

Hello sorry to bother you!

I've noticed you post a lot about a manhwa called Hand Jumper? And compare it favorable to Worm? I was wondering if you could give a description/sell it a little - it seems good but the description online is so vague I can't tell if I'd like it or not

Thank you so much~~~

Cracks knuckles. Let's GO!

Hand Jumper is a fantasy/superpower/thriller webtoon, featuring a girl called Sayeon Lee. Sayeon is my beloved babygirl and somewhat Worm-y in that she has a unique power that interacts with her psychological issues in interesting ways. Having this power makes her an Aberrant, an oppressed class (though, don't look too hard at the social worldbuilding; it's about Ward quality in the early chapters, if you ask me. Sigh.). Aberrants can either be conscripted into the Aberrant Corps (evil torturemurder school. I like how this webtoon depicts the education system. for catharsis reasons) or declared illegal, upon which the Corps is tasked to hunt arrest them.

Sayeon comes from a long line of Aberrant criminals, high-ups in the underworld. As a matter of fact, her older sister is an Aberrant criminal right now. Sayeon, however, is viciously opposed to all crime (for reasons to be revealed later!) and works herself to the bone to become a criminal prosecutor. (Have I mentioned I like how school is depicted?).

Her future and identity are shattered when her Aberrancy manifests and she's conscripted into the Corps. The main story focuses on Sayeon trying to survive and orient herself around a new goalpost, as she bonds with - and pulls away from - her squadmates. (Especially Ryujin. Ryujin, my second favourite scrunkly, stands for none of the Corps' shit and forms a glorious foil for Sayeon.) There's some action here. We also get to know people on different levels of the Corps, and while the worldbuilding can still be criticised, the flaws start to pale in the face of compelling human characters. Having a shit-awful time in the torturemurder school. Perpetrating the atrocities &c. There's also a small ongoing mystery throughout S1, which adds to the thriller element, though it's more a mystery for the readers than the characters.

Then, we have a secondary plotline focusing on Sayeon's sister, and her activities in the Aberrant underworld.

And Sayeon's past is revealed non-linearly, in a sort of third storyline/mini-mystery.

We also get episodes focused on individual side characters, much like Origins episodes in an anime, and learn about the fantasy side of the worldbuilding - better than the social side, imo, even though I haven't dabbled in it too much.

That was a lot more selling than description, lol, sorry about that. I also mayy be biased-

^ me

[evil-women-step-on-me]

delulu hours

[evil-women-step-on-me]

#happy valentines day fellow sapphics

(tw underage drinking) get yalls juice sayjin shippers god knows theyve been drinking theirs

[evil-women-step-on-me]

3C2=3, peace and love

[evil-women-step-on-me]

so, about those hand jumper playlists

Went down a little rabbit hole the other day with the author of Hand Jumper's playlists on Spotify. There's one for each member of Cell 4, and a private playlist for Butcher that @binnieceo kindly linked for me. Each one is exactly 6 songs long (except the Butcher one). I haven't listened to Min's yet.

First impressions: The lyrics of each song fit HJ so well. This isn't just music that kind of fits the vibe of each character; the first song on Sayeon's playlist stunned me.

Looking back at a face Barely recognize you But the eyes are a shade Of the same perfect blue I watched you change into someone new Saw it all degrade into déjà vu Who are you? Perfect blue

Because Sayeon's eyes turn blue when she uses her powers?? Same with Samin?? And time powers... DEJA VU???????? ok joking aside. There's no doubt in my mind that this song is about Sayeon's and Samin's metamorphoses, and more generally, about their relationship. There are other moments in Sayeon's playlist specifically that were really perfect.

But geez, my second big thought is that these playlists are REALLY DEPRESSING. I'm a basic pop/indie bitch so maybe I'm just not used to how downer alt rock/grunge is, which Sleepacross is clearly a fan of. But even Iseul's playlist, which is the most upbeat of the four by a wide margin, has some really sad lyrics. They don't bode well for his character arc.

I'm really tempted to do some little write ups on these. 6 songs/playlist is super small, like my character playlists are 40 songs long on average, but I think that's because each song was really purposefully chosen. Ryujin's playlist is both really interesting and kind of gay.

#hand jumper #the last song in sayeon's playlist is Time in a Bottle by jim croce which I think is hilarious and also really really sad #If I could save time in a bottle #The first thing that I'd like to do #Is to save every day till eternity passes away #Just to spend them with you... :( #maybe she's talking about jaeil...