"Among the things that victims have lost, how many things do you think they can reclaim? It's just their own glory and honor. Nothing more. Some regain those things through forgiveness, while others regain them through revenge. Only then can they reach the starting point."
After 18 long years, Moon Dong-eun will have her revenge for all the injuries, indignities, assaults and suffering she has suffered. In school, her bullies beat her, sexually assaulted her, and finally burned her repeatedly all over her body with irons. Unfortunately, the families of the bullies have fixed things so that their children won't face consequences, bribing a police detective to dismiss any cases against their children. Worse for Dong-Eun, she's beaten by her teacher for reporting her abuse, the school nurse who is the only person on her side is forced to quit and her mother is bribed to remove her from school with the reason being "maladjustment". Her mother who has always hated her existence uses the hefty bribe to ghost her one day, rendering her homeless and wonless.
"What does hatred mean? Her eyes that turned darker when she got excited. Her lips that curled up when she smiled. Every single strand of her beautiful hair. Put all of that together, and that's what hatred is."
While her bullies move on to targeting the girl who abandoned their friendship to avoid being collateral damage, Dong-eun is forced to work long hours in a sushi shop and a laundry to survive and eventually contemplates suicide before returning to her school to confront her bullies. She tells them what each of their dreams for adulthood are and is bluntly told that dreams are only for poor people, the Rich will be able to do whatever they want in life. In response, she says that her dreams are them. They'll be all she thinks about and all she dreams about. Eighteen years of preparation later, she returns as a dark and foreboding figure promising that they will be destroyed even if God is on the side of her enemies.
"Nobody will protect you, Dong-eun. Not the police, not the school, and not even your parents. What do you call a person like that? An underdog."
The Glory is a revenge K-Drama that I became so addicted to after a single episode that I binged all 16 episodes in two days. What a happy coincidence since I realized I had focused too much on action so far and needed some good old fashioned drama and boy
what a drama. Based partly on a real life incident from the 00s, its a riveting and wild ride. Dark, twisted, and bleak with a main character whose obsession borders on Sapphic, it turns into an endearing, hopeful and heartwarming story by the time the last foe is removed. The foes including:
- Park Yeon-jin: Unrepentant rich bitch who married into a Chaebol (family owned conglomerates that basically control the South Korean economy) and was able to leverage that into being a weather newscaster despite a complete lack of talent or meteorological knowledge. She was the ring leader of the gang of bullies and even in adulthood maintains a level of control over the group dynamic. She has darker secrets than even the rest of the group, that nobody must know. Despite having an incredible and supportive husband in Ha Do-yeong, she's cheating on him with:
- Jeon Jae-joon: A violent, unhinged maniac who assaults anyone for the merest slights and may have sexually assaulted a few people to boot but he's too rich to face consequences for it. He's still somehow not as bad a person as Yeon-jin. He has inherited colorblindness and other eye issues and has passed it down to his and Yeon-jin's daughter Ha Ye-sol
- Lee Sa-ra: A hypocritical Christian who believes that everything she does is forgiven because her father runs her church. She lives an extremely hedonistic life to the point that her parents often show up with medical staff to supply IV fluids when her vitals drop too low and hired goons to drag out sexual partners. She has a violent, bullying streak as strong as Jae-Joon's and she's also a complete bitch to their old friend:
- Choi Hye-jeong: A flight attendant and wannabe influencer who is on the verge of marrying into a Chaebol. Her family was middle class and owns a dry cleaners that she steals clothes from to pretend to be better off than she is, which her friends mock her for. She's partly kept in the friend group for everyone to have a target against. She has a massive crush on Jae-joon and feels nothing for the rich man she's trying to marry but is oblivious to the actual genuine affections of:
- Son Myeong-oh: The person who Dong-eun didn't even pretend had an actual future or dreams. He's a violent creep and serial sexual assaulter who is the lowest person on the totem pole in the bully group that nobody even pretends to give a shit about. He's Jae-joon's employee and Sa-ra's drug dealer, and is treated horribly by everyone around him who only view him as an errand boy. He isn't even included in group photos despite doing all their dirty work. Less of a friend, more of an abused flunky.
- Hong Young-ae: Yeon-jin's rich and protective mother whose wealth protects her. She's the one who bribed her mother to abandon her, paid off the police and smoothed things out with the school. She's cold blooded and has a corrupt police detective on retainer.
- Shin Young-joon: Young-ae's corrupt police officer who moonlights as a very low level crime boss and has used her money to buy himself properties. The crimes he's responsible for covering up are numerous and horrifying.
- Kim Jong-moon: Dong-eun's teacher that covered up the abuse and beat her viciously when she spoke up. He's not going to be long for this world.
- Jung Mi-hee: This fucking bitch is Dong-eun's mother. A drunken, violent and disgusting woman who betrayed her kid for money and will continue to cause harm to her if she can make more money of it.
"I'll never forgive you. The reason I won't forgive you is because you still don't understand that you were my first perpetrator."
This isn't even all the people that Dong-eun must overcome but they're all the ones responsible for her suffering and who she must destroy in the name of vengeance. Unfortunately for them, Dong-eun is a force unto herself. She's cunning, calculating, patient and vastly more intelligent and determined than her enemies. She's been obsessed with revenge for 18 long years and its all she's alive for. She's also capable of dropping of lines so hard they'll cut diamond. Nuclear winter isn't as cold as the shit she says to people as she gets inside their heads. She's fucking great but even someone as incredible as her needs help and she has two main allies.
"I sometimes wonder. The solidarity between victims and the solidarity between perpetrators. Which of them is stronger?"
The first is Dr Joo Yeo-jeong, who first met her ten years prior. He taught her how to play Go, a key element in her strategizing and plans, and supported her but she left suddenly one day. Since then he has waited ten years to be re-activated in her mission because he is the Long War Simp, the Simpmaster General, the Simp Order of Lenin recipient. This guy is in this shit for the long haul and will do anything required of him. He is her "executioner"/"headsman", not a white knight but a squire to her terrible vengeance. He was sold day one on vengeance, and is the obvious love interest that is demanded by such a story but a story like this needs a reason for someone to live in the end. She doesn't know how much she saved him at first, because he has his own dark secrets and wrongs that need to be righted.
"I'm not looking for a prince. What I need is not a prince, but a headsman who will join me in the sword dance."
"I'll do it. I'll be your headsman. I'll join the sword dance."
He's joined by Kang Hyeon-nam, a poor woman who is constantly abused and assaulted by her violent alcoholic husband that is starting to turn his violence towards her daughter. She manages to catch Dong-eun by surprise when nobody else has been able to and offers her services to her in exchange for two things: The safety of her daughter and the death of her abuser. She provides intel and surveillance on their targets, and she's as adorable as she is capable. Her life is vastly improved by knowing Dong-eun and manages to achieve much more independence and become far more capable than she was at the start. She's not the only one though, because Dong-euns original good nature is still evident even if she thinks she's buried it and she's touched the lives of others and her belief that God is against her may not be true.
"There was a time when I used to think, 'What if anybody, or anything, had tried to help me?' Eighteen springs have passed since then. Now I finally realize that there were good grown-ups around me, too. Friends, weather, and divine intervention, too."
I fucking love this show. It's like Count of Monte-Cristo mixed with Jojo and Leverage. We'll see scenes play out and things will look bleak, but then we'll rewind and get context that reveals that everything is under control. With some of the cliffhangers, if Roundabout started playing I wouldn't be surprise. The characters are great, the romance is pretty good, and the show is extremely quotable. The show is fairly light on murder and most characters are undone by their own actions and flaws given a push. Her own tormenters end up doing more direct damage than her but she's always there. For 18 long years she watched and waited, because its a thin line between love and hate, and that line is obsession. Hook this shit to my veins.
