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I am absolutely here for everyone crucifying Lookism's messed-up themes of SA and female characters being treated as props. To add insult to injury, let me remind everyone that this discussion is taking place during the arc that most people were expecting to finally spotlight a strong female character 😭

#we were all so happy to see Mary even a little bit #that most people didn't even mention that she's barely in this story😭 #mary kim #vin jin #lookism manhwa #lookism #lookism webtoon

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Gitae fans when the cartel-running, axe-wielding, homicidal sociopath turns out to be a genuinely bad person

#lookism gitae #im not judging you😭 #but im not falling for this sh again #start counting your days #i know some of you got done so dirty with taejin #im scared #lookism #lookism webtoon #gitae kim

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PTJ why 😭

I can feel 2019 2024 me shaking and crying cus of this

#lookism #lookism webtoon #daniel park #jay hong #lookism jay #lookism janiel

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I have too much to say so I'll just be working on my own post but yes yes and yes🧍‍♀️

sally park: a missed opportunity

this is probably going to rot in drafts for a WHILE but i needed to scream into the void about this so let me rant to YOU (yes, you) about how ptj fucked up sally park's writing and purpose in the story so much that she is now just a bundle of missed opportunities. the same could also be said about other characters like crystal choi, luah lim, etc. but i just reread hunt for hostel and i have a lot of insane thoughts that need to be screamed about.

as a character who was the center of attention during her introduction arc, she has been reduced to simply an eli enabler and warren's love interest, who gets about 3 panels to really shine, and then is demoted back into window dressing.

warning: mild eli hate ahead but i do NOT hate eli, i just hate ptj for making everything hostel related eli-centric, when sally is arguably just as important.

so. lets start at the beginning.

from the very beginning, the eli jang arc was told from sally's perspective especially based off the narration, and her character during the majority of the eli jang arc BANGED. initially introduced as a classic demure, feminine savior figure for bad boy warren in the first chapter of the eli jang arc, it's then shown that she isn't as naive or one-dimensional as she may seem.

in fact, shes shown to be fiercely independent and self-sufficient, learning to live by herself and deal with her own problems without anyone helping her, while simultaneously grappling with her grandmother blaming her over her dad's death (side note this plotline, which could've added so much depth to her story was NEVER picked up again)

on my first read of the eli jang arc, this sequence actually punched me in the gut and sally became an instant fav

but i digress. continuing back to the main point, sally was a tremendously well written character (or as good as we're gonna' get when it comes to female characters by ptj) in the eli jang arc, whether it be her narration (scenes like "sometimes i think if i hadn't introduced them to eli back then, our story wouldn't have been such a tragedy"), or her actual actions in the story.

she was integral to the story. in fact, i would say that she was MORE central to the heart and soul of hostel than eli jang was (at first, before she got butchered by ptj and forgotten about) because it was HER that was providing for her family with HER own money, until eli stepped in months later. she was the one that everyone wanted to assist and protect because she was who was holding everyone together through her sacrifice and love.

LOOK AT HER!!! just LOOK AT HER!!! she is so noble and tragic and she does everything for the sake of her family, including starving herself! she is so tremendously loving and sacrifices so much for her family, which is why everyone unites around her to help her!

in fact, the reason warren, eli, and others devolve into crime and stealing is to help her get more money for food, as they can't bear to see her starve herself. while this does come off a little bit white knight-ey (oh a big strong man has to save the sweet damsel), the point is that she has this kind of power over the people around her through her genuine leadership skills

not only that, but she was actually also the one who came up with the idea of using their old building to provide for more homeless kids, showing that she really should be credited with the creation and management of the runaway fams, far more than she is in the story.

even though, immediately after, its shown that she didn't think enough about the financials of the situation, and eli gets his time to shine by coming up with the point organization stuff, the way its framed portrays both sally's idea and eli's financial proposal of the financial system as equally important things. this scene makes me think that, at the very least, sally and eli's importance should be on equal footing: sally is the passion, the heart, the core, while eli is the figurehead, the brains, the fighter.

in summary, sally was the person who united the original hostel A through her leadership, kindness, and sacrifice, and had so much soft power over everyone that the entirety of her family would do anything to help her. she also came up with the idea of helping runaway families, demonstrating her kindness and generosity.

not only that, she was still actively managing the runaway families and making money while eli fucked off to j high to become a barber, allowing her to get closer to the runaway fams and inspire them with her leadership.

with all that said, it's clear that sally should be a three-dimensional girlboss who uses her charisma and good personality to gain soft power and lead the people around her as one of the figureheads and hearts of the hostel crew, right?

well. no.

after the eli jang arc, she becomes close to useless.

i dont remember much of 2A outside of the big deal stuff, but what i do remember is that sally does nothing, wins a singular rock-papers-scissors game, and then becomes a damsel in distress again that warren needs to save and gets to show off his cool fighting skills in the process. (this may not be accurate, feel free to correct me if im wrong)

but my BIGGEST gripe is the hunt for hostel arc. the hunt for hostel arc was very much centered around eli, warren, and even jerry, more than it was sally, despite how much of an integral role she played in the formation of hostel. during the entire arc, she does basically nothing but watch on the sidelines

... and then ptj pulls this on us. they all unite because they admire and love eli jang so much? only eli jang? not warren chae, gangdong's mighty? not max and derek, the two uncles? not sally park, THE big mama?

i cannot emphasize how ironic it is that sally, the big mama, quite literally gave birth to the idea of the runaway fams, and yet nobody mentions her again afterwards, and only ever eli jang. like... what did eli ever do for you? give you a shitty haircut?

and when warren and eli leave, i FINALLY thought that ptj was going to give sally a moment to shine and show her by herself again, like she was all that time ago, and how she figures out how to save her family despite being unable to fight...

but no. we get this sick ass panel and then she is completely irrelevant again

the next example of the sally erasure comes when eugene is talking to eli about him joining workers. he tries to convince eli that this is the ONLY thing that he can do to protect his family, and that, now that he's here and so is warren, hostel is weak and helpless because the MEN that get everything done aren't there anymore and "oh no, what can sally park and the girls do?"

like fym "what can they do"?! sally is a LEADER and she has POWER and INFLUENCE (or at least, she should). but no, the narrative doesn't prove him wrong, and sally does next to nothing in the narrative.

i cannot emphasize how much more of a leader figure she is than eli btw. she took all the runaway kids under her wing. it was her idea to build an organization for these kids in the first place. she was the one singlehandedly raising money for all 7 high schoolers in her family before eli stepped in. she STARVED HERSELF and CUT HER OWN FINGERS trying to make food for her family. she was THE big mama. EVERYONE wanted to protect her and respect and love her. and yet ELI is the main character of hostel that is oh so important and that everyone will unite under????

"oh no without you how will anything get done, eli jang?" stfu

and even when she does do things, later on, it's really more of an excuse for vasco to shine. while she was the one to get heather's mom to forgive eli, as well as the one that got vasco to save eli in the first place, 1) her major role in this part of the story is entirely sidelined and given no narrative weight outside of being the reason that eli's healing arc can happen and 2) the only agency we've ever seen her having since hostel arc is in relation to eli. she only ever acts on her own to save eli. she PROBABLY did stuff outside of that to help hostel, but that is entirely offscreen and not focused on at all, so her leadership and agency when it comes to things outside of a MAN are ignored.

in chapter 478, i thought that she was once again given a brief moment to shine when she looked sad and all wondering what they would do once they didn't have the income workers supplied them with, and i was hoping that she'd get a chance to creatively problem solve around it to show a good character moment for her and the rest of hostel... but who am i kidding this is ptj of course he wouldnt do that. nah, it was just a scene so that vasco could introduce jay again and be like "hey guys jay is actually relevant to the story and he's a nice person, just so you guys dont forget that he's still there! and also ignore this deus ex machina ass solution to a conflict that could've been a really interesting character study!!"

so yeah. that's basically it. in conclusion, i think sally park is a HUGE missed opportunity for ptj to finally write a good female character. kind, compassionate, charismatic, smart, sally's got it all. however, just because she is a soft character doesn't mean that she's a pushover and she held tremendous power and authority because of everything she did for her family. however, ptj decides to do nothing with her and turn her into an eli enabler and a warren love interest instead, ignoring her leadership skills and influence.

and once again, no hate to eli, warren, jerry, jay, or any of the other character i just shat on to make a point!! i like all of them, but i just think that sally's character assassination to allow them to shine was an infuriating decision on ptj's part

#lookism #lookism manhwa #sally park #lookism girls

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my goofy delulu ass thinking today's chapter would actually have gun agreeing to join goo's side

😆😃😀🙂😐🙁☹️

#lookism #lookism webtoon #gun park #goo kim #lookism gun #lookism 480

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Wait hold on 😭

People on the Lookism subreddit have been saying for a while that DG might be Charles Choi's second body. I didn't believe it at first but now...let's just say I'm considering it a possibility. But then- Like- All the Daniel x DG content becomes- 💀oh my gOD

(first pic from pinterest :/, lya on pixiv, yucchi on pixiv, Lukayas on amino)

#daniel park #lookism #lookism webtoon #lookism dg #james lee #charles choi #daniel has been rizzing his FIL this whole time #im dying

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gay people be like run away with me then the clown music starts playing

#lookism #lookism webtoon #lookism goo #lookism gun #gun park #goo kim #I'll be okay #i lie to myself #lookism 479

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Dang Jay...

I just realized... one of the fandoms biggest criticisms of Jay was that he never interacted with anyone other than Daniel....and well....that's not entirely true anymore is it? I mean he's def still under-developed and very....deus ex-machina-esque. But hey, I feel like it's an improvement!

#lookism #jay hong #lookism jay #lookism webtoon #daniel park

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✨Every day I fight the urge to write a 5 paragraph essay about PTJ and lgbt characters✨

One day...🔥

#jay hong #lookism jay #lookism webtoon #lookism #viral hit #irrelevant #gun park #darius hong

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Mijin is like...my first litmus test for whether or not someone's opinions on Lookism characters are valid.

I low-key don't trust ppl who hate Mira, like she's the sweetest character and has done nothing wrong and somehow fans find a reason to hate her. Like her not being a favorite is one thing, but hating her for being "useless" is another. There are so many side characters that don't play massive roles, but no one hates them. She's cries a lot, but she's probably one of the most mentally strong characters in this webtoon after all that she’s been through. Also, how weird is it that Zack fans are hating her for being his love interest.

just saw some weird ass mira hate comments and it ruined my mood a bit 😤

Anyways my mommy bought me a cute dress so I'm not too irritated. Just wild af to see fans get jealous over fictional characters

#lookism #lookism mira #mira kim

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I mean…I know that's not crazy as far as fanfic goes…..hell you’ll find stories of the dudes in lookism doing all sorts of f-ed shit to each other its not that its just……mira’s barely a whole character. All she is is zack’s love interest. And….and the author went out of their way to remind us of the fact that mira had been assaulted many times before….just to portray zack as a “good guy” who “deserves mira’s love”. And it just….really got to me….why would you?

tw: SA

I just......read a fanfic where zack kinda....forces himself onto mira.

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tw: SA

I just......read a fanfic where zack kinda....forces himself onto mira.

#lookism mira #mira kim #zack lee

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I love how the person Jay's dad assigned to teach Jay how to "behave like a man" is a literal woman like tf?

#lookism #lookism webtoon #jay hong #lookism jay #lookism sophia

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Lets see.

After chp 250 was hostel arc which basically ended with hostel disbanding after crewhead olly wang tragically took his own life.

After that begins the whole saga with the crews workers and big deal. All you have to know about that is big deal's leader jake kim has history with a leader at workers, samuel seo. they both used to be part of big deal back in the day when the crew was led by another man named sinu. big deal ended up getting targeted by gun and goo and sinu han sold himself to the workers, disappearing for many years and after being released from prison jake kim looks for him.

during this time the main gang daniel, zack and vasco as well as eli jang get caught up with the workers as well. enter hudson ahn (and some other guys but they're not important). hudson ahn was trained by taesoo ma, one of the many kings of "generation 1" who all fought with the infamous James Lee from Daniel's second body's ID! (who is this mysterious man?)

Jiho park....also takes his life rather abruptly :/

Jake ends up finding Sinu and Samuel seo betrays Eugene (head of workers), rejoining big deal.

Vin Jin's eyes are revealed! He....has polycuria and was faced with religious persecution because of it.

daniel's new body gets kidnapped by the workers! and later in the workers fight against big deal samuel and johan also get caught and brought back to an insane doctors secret lab! this man is jinyoung park and he belongs to "the pre-generation" or "gen 0". Gen 0 includes people like:

Charles Choi (crystal's dad), Tom Lee (mr. carpenter from Eli's backstory who also trained gun and goo)

And Big deal's leader, Jake Kim's father, Gapryoung kim. Gapryoung Kim led a gang with the four of them before heading into politics and dying. It is also revealed that Jake Kim has a half brother who seems to run a mexican cartel and was involved in their father's death 💀ik

workers also try to take down hostel and that ends with eli and warren working for the workers. meanwhile daniel vasco and zack get their training arcs💪

zack is trained by Gongseob, another member of gen 1 like James Lee and Taesoo Ma. Don't remember if vasco was even trained by someone. But daniel's little body was trained by....Gun Park! anyway they become much stronger and go to take down workers. daniel visits his mother and she can't even recognize him! he's much taller (not as tall as new body tho) and jacked!

while visiting her he learns something....his mother knows Jinyoung park of gen 0! but she refuses to tell him anything so later daniel goes to the countryside to learn more info about jinyoung, hoping it will help him find his new body.

There he teams up with a police man, Kwak Jichang and his younger brothers Jibeom and Jihan. Jichang is also part of Gen 1 and was defeated by James Lee who is none other than........

DG!!! (idk why im telling you this now it was revealed way sooner in the story) Before becoming a popstar with the name DG or Diego Kang, James Lee was a gangster who fought the kings of Gen 1 and mutilated all of them except Jichang cus he thought he was too pitiful lol.

Something something and....Jichang is dead! CHARLES CHOI KILLED HIM!! Jibeom and Jihan want to avenge him and stuff so they join daniel, zack, vasco and hudson who only joined because he wanted to defeat eli jang in a fight.

Daniel names his crew allied and when he asks Vin Jin to join his crew Vin laughs at its name and rejects. But what do you know Vin Jin does end up joining when he finds out one person working with the workers is Taejin, a past enemy of his.

"Stuff" goes down and Eli Jang and Warren leave workers. Helping allied, Eli jang ends up fighting against a beast created by the mad scientists at the workers (probably jinyoung, a young plastic surgeon name hangyoul). This monster has already taken down Jibeom and Jihan, and Eli's fight is still ongoing/unrevealed.

Jinyoung's lab experiments are released. Drugged up Johan fights Zack until he comes back to his senses. Drugged up Samuel fights against Jake until passing out. Drugged up new body daniel....BEATS JAY TO A PULP 😭😭😭😭 And then he fights against little daniel, zack, vasco, jerry of big deal, and warren. And he's still fcking winning!!!

Jake confronts Jinyoung who tries to fight Jake at first. Jinyoung is very unstable and mistakes Jake for his half-brother, accusing him of killing gapryoung and beating him. Until Jinyoung randomly comes to his senses and recognizes Jake as Gap's son, someone he loved and treated as a nephew. After this he promises to help jake and allied to take down big daniel.

That's kind of a recap. A lot of stuff is in the wrong order and I also omitted a lot but this is like the bare bones you need to know to understand the current story.

can someone explain to me what happened in lookism after all of the gang fights started😭🙏

#lookism #lookism webtoon #lookism recap

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Me trying to appreciate the thought and artwork that went into Lookism's panels (Haha he's standing on his toes so silly).

Lookism Panel: A Cinematic Analysis

SPOILER ALERT

I used to study filmmaking a little bit. From the cinematic standpoint, what makes this panel works so well is its minimum spotlight lighting, stark coloring and the lack of background detail. Giving the focus on the unnatural (ghost-like or puppet-like) pose before anything else. We might even forget that there are blood splatter and chunks of broken wall on the floor, our eyes are drawn towards that creepy pose.

#lookism #daniel park #park hyungseok #lookism 468 #lookism webtoon

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he didn't even resi- oh my god it hurts- jay you didn't deserve this

aw man...🥺 Janiel fangirls back in the day woulda gone apeshit if they knew it would come to this. I know many people still do but...this made me think about the ones who left lookism because they missed jay and daniel....haha....ha..

#lookism #lookism webtoon #lookism jay #jay hong #lookism daniel #daniel park #lookism 466 #jay x daniel

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when I’m looking for Lookism content and find sexist/racist incel shit instead

me when i search the tag "lookism" to find content about the silly little webtoon i love but instead i get LOOKism

#lookism #lookism webtoon