Weak Hero Class 2

Action-packed — but rushed and without the charm of S1

So I really enjoyed the first season and decided to read through the webtoon before S2 came out. I enjoyed it thoroughly and grew to love the gigantic cast of characters. I was really excited to see how it would be adapted — all while keeping in mind that it’s very different.

With that being said, I don’t mind when an adaptation takes creative liberties, but I think this season is not only missing the structure of the webtoon but also the charm of the first season.

I think it’s pretty obvious that eight 40-minute episodes is not enough to go through the complete journey the main character goes through in the comics. It’s an epic journey of going to a new school and slowly learning how to make friends again, as well as fighting for them — starting from defeating the mindless bullies, to taking down the one at the top and dismantling the entire system.

The drama just goes through everything WAY too fast. It feels like we’re speed-running through fights, dropping backstories in 5-minute conversations, and going from place to place and defeating antagonists without even establishing who they are. It’s unclear why one plot point is leading to the next, and the final fight is so short and so quick, and the drama never established WHY we had to do everything to get to that point.

The webtoon really gets us deep inside Si Eun’s mind as he learns who’s who in the hierarchy and how to face each one. Choi Hyo Man / Colton Choi is the first fish — the one whose bark is larger than his bite. Geum Seong Je / Wolf Keum is second — the arrogant and prideful one who is quick to start fights and enjoy them. And finally the story works its way to the top, where we have Na Baek Jin / Donald Na — the charismatic leader and the mastermind fueled by his own tragic backstory.

In the drama, it feels like these antagonists run in parallel, and either their motivations aren’t fleshed out well, or they just feel underwhelming. The different schools/factions blur into each other, and the fight against the Union feels more surface level and small-scale — we’re simply shutting down an illegal business and beating an ex-friend, instead of dismantling the entire power structure.

Still, Geum Seong Je (played fantastically by Jun Young) is probably my favorite antagonist. Na Baek Jin has great visuals and great acting too, but the changes to the backstory made it too cliche for me, and I also don’t think the show did a great job of establishing how powerful he was and why.

As a sequel series, I also think it doesn’t quite have the charm of the previous season.

While S1 really focused on Si Eun’s personality of carefully observing personalities and surroundings and implementing science/math into fights — which is what made it stand out in the first place — this season feels a lot more simple, punch-punch-kick-kick. His calculated personality isn’t shining through in the fight scenes anymore, and even outside of fight scenes, he feels a lot more passive and a lot less intentional. Pacing has been the main issue so far and that affects this as well — Si Eun is just not given time to “study” his opponents. And when he does…I think we were in desperate need of more internal monologues because from the outside, it seems like he’s just running around, doing whatever the next plot calls for.

I like that we are seeing him go through grief and guilt though and the drama doesn’t shy away from reminding us how much Su Ho shaped his identity — the show is strongest in those moments.

I also think the friendships are just a tiny bit less strong, although I love the casting for every single character and I actually REALLY buy into them as a friend group when I see them together. Once again, though, they’re hampered by the short runtime. The group chemistry is fantastic when they’re having fun, but I just can’t buy into the more emotional moments.

Compared to season 1, it’s also pretty obvious there’s a new production team, The color grading and cinematography are a little off sometimes, and I really miss the gritty and darker vibes from the first season. This is minor compared to my other issues, but when you take a weirdly satured color scheme and combine it with the glaring pacing problem, it just feels like we lost a lot of tension.

One last gripe: I will never like the car accident trope lol. K-drama writers…stop it.

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U-turns Law Says... We Are All Psychos

These people had more lives than a goddamn cat. I kept screaming 'Is You Dead? Why is you not dead?' like every episode, and they just kept not dying. No really, by episode 2 half of the cast should have been in a coma, in wheel chairs, missing ribs and tooth or flat-out dead, cuz how?? These people even showed up to a brawl with umbrellas and after an epic beat down just stood up and walked off... they just walked away and took the bus home. HOW????

Listen, I missed our little dead eyes psycho Yeon Si Eun. I missed how he always look like that one dude who goes outside after a month and come back and go 'dear dairy, I went out today and the humans are still there. I did not care for it.' Still, we love him and his high and mighty attitude, but why homeboy was out there this season walking around like a middle-aged man who drives an old Kia and sell lunch boxes at the fish market? No, but y'all saw his walking right? LOL.

Anywho. This season although it had its moments was missing the emotional heart of the first season. Except for some flimsy one dimension character info we knew basically nothing about the new cast we were supposed to care about. Take Baku, all I knew was his dad sells chicken and he once taught his friend to fight. And glasses he was... well, at least I remember him from XO, Kitty, so that's something. So yeah, we didn't get much background about the new cast, but what we did know was they could take a beaten and still show up to school the next day cuz they had math class, you know, variables and whatnot. So yeah, entertaining, overdone violence like always, but I did not connect with the new characters on any emotional level, still I liked them, cuz their friendship was developed to a point that I came to care about it, and it had its own charm.

The four main cast had good chemistry, and I bought their friendship. I liked how they were there for each other even when their lives were at risk. Even that weak loser held his own when it mattered. Personally by episode 5 they should all have been dead but well, they're fine so... we move. As for our underdog hero as always he was the see something pretend you don't care but do something anyway hero, kind heart and whatnot. He still liked pens and hugging legs. You'd think the bad guys would have learned by now but here we are.

And then there was that villain, Na Baek Jin. The moment that pencil case showed up I was like, yep, dude's dead inside. While Si Eun looks at people like they don't matter, this dude eyes were literally the gate way to hell. If he was my neighbour i'd have moved to a different city, heck, I might just leave the country for him. You ain't gonna suck the soul out of me, not today satan.

As villains goes he was your basic 'omg I'm the bad guy I'll use your love ones to torment you hahaha' bad guy. There was nothing special or unique about him. Literally the only thing interesting about him was that he got some math question wrong one time and dude made it his whole personality for a good minute. We get it, you understand variables, equations and stuff, let us have peace. So yeah, he was your basic villain who didn't even seem like he was smart enough for the hunger game, so nothing revolutional there, but he was interesting enough to keep the plot going and add to it, by showing up and doing villain stuff, so yeah.

Then of course, suddenly we are in a church and the writers showed like two seconds of his back story and motives, (but I'm distracted cuz he forgot to buy hair gel and dude is now out there with his hair looking like my auntie's church wig), and expect viewers to feel bad for him in the finale cuz he up and died off screen one time. Like? Nah fam, I did not connect with that pencil case enough to care. And I counted, dude had like at least 3 more lives left. Also, why were the four leads crying like someone stole their lunch when they were literally beating him yesterday?

HAHAHAHA, I'm sorry, but did this people show up to a brawl with umbrellas? What the hell were they afraid of? catching a cold? And where the hell were the teachers? These people were never there for anything at all. Baku walked into a school with a megaphone and screamed for a fight and nothing? And also where did the teachers think the students were in the finale. I'm pretty sure it was a Tuesday, so did they just assumed half the students stayed home? And how the hell no one, the teachers, not even the cops found it weird with all those missing phones? HOW?

All in all, yes, I missed the old cast, kept holding my breath waiting for our boy to wake up from his coma ,and when he did I clapped in happiness. When that loser friend from season1 showed up in black and white, I was like, 'where is you?' I wonder what became of him. But I was happy that Si Eun didn't just moved on, and his trauma forgotten. The moment he started to get involved and help Jun Tae I was like... Nooooo don't you remember the mouth breather from season1, you gonna get yourself in trouble again. But thinking about it, is Si Eun the chaos magnet who brings danger to everyone around him or is he just prone to bad luck and always get close to people who brings him danger? Which is which? Personally, I think Su Ho should have stayed in that coma, cuz with those new friends Si Eun just made them, he's probably gonna end up back in the hospital again in season3.

Anyway a good show to binge-watch. Those like me who waited for the second season would not be disappointed, cuz it's enjoyable. I recommend it to first season watchers and anyone looking for some underdog drama. I'm looking forward to season 3, hopefully it comes sooner than later.

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