I still think Yang Kang is the most interesting character in the drama, even if he is currently driving me into a homicidal rage.
The thing that makes it so interesting to me is that he wasn't this useless evil nasty piece of work from the start - yeah, he was a little spoiled, but his heart was in the right place and he actually became this really cool guy whom I adored (there was a very long stretch where I was all about him and didn't find GJ very interesting at all and was all "OK, let's just concentrate on YK storyline). I mean, he went from earning $$ in the street to support Nianci and fighting his family enemies to the death rather than surrender and even putting up with torture without revealing his name to - this.
But I think that is why I find it so interesting - because he is someone who started out good and then got handed some really horrible cards and sort of snapped - his reaction to all the awful stuff that happened to him and his powerlessness and lack of control was not a healthy solution of some sort but a "well, if I become powerful at whatever cost, it won't happen again" and that, plus his resentment at fate and more fortunate people is basically slowly turning him into a monster. His revenge plan doesn't help his psychic health either - if you think about it, evil or not, he still hates Wanyan Honglie but has to pretend to love him and also really watch his back around him. And since he isn't a 'born' bad guy, doing bad stuff actually, oddly, makes him resent GJ more - because he feels wronged at having to do bad stuff, to be 'forced' as he feels it.
And then when he does all that stuff, he has to justify it to himself by going it's for the greater good, or that the person deserved it, or it's their fault etc - because he can't acknowledge the full wrongness to himself, he doesn't really dare.
I find it interesting how he compartmentalizes things - any halfway sane person would realize that he can't keep Nianci after all the stuff he did, even if she is in a village - she will find out what is going on eventually. Or that his revenge plan is hopelessly muddy - by now he can kill Honglie any time. But he is so messed-up in the head and all his various goals (revenge! power! love! good opinion of his conscience, however little is left! etc!) are all hopelessly messed up.
I really think that what drives him most up the wall about GJ is not martial arts teaching refusal or good fortune or whatever, but GJ's inner peace and moral certainty. It's something YK never had even before he went bad - his circumstances were always a lot more screwed up.
The thing that makes it so interesting to me is that he wasn't this useless evil nasty piece of work from the start - yeah, he was a little spoiled, but his heart was in the right place and he actually became this really cool guy whom I adored (there was a very long stretch where I was all about him and didn't find GJ very interesting at all and was all "OK, let's just concentrate on YK storyline). I mean, he went from earning $$ in the street to support Nianci and fighting his family enemies to the death rather than surrender and even putting up with torture without revealing his name to - this.
But I think that is why I find it so interesting - because he is someone who started out good and then got handed some really horrible cards and sort of snapped - his reaction to all the awful stuff that happened to him and his powerlessness and lack of control was not a healthy solution of some sort but a "well, if I become powerful at whatever cost, it won't happen again" and that, plus his resentment at fate and more fortunate people is basically slowly turning him into a monster. His revenge plan doesn't help his psychic health either - if you think about it, evil or not, he still hates Wanyan Honglie but has to pretend to love him and also really watch his back around him. And since he isn't a 'born' bad guy, doing bad stuff actually, oddly, makes him resent GJ more - because he feels wronged at having to do bad stuff, to be 'forced' as he feels it.
And then when he does all that stuff, he has to justify it to himself by going it's for the greater good, or that the person deserved it, or it's their fault etc - because he can't acknowledge the full wrongness to himself, he doesn't really dare.
I find it interesting how he compartmentalizes things - any halfway sane person would realize that he can't keep Nianci after all the stuff he did, even if she is in a village - she will find out what is going on eventually. Or that his revenge plan is hopelessly muddy - by now he can kill Honglie any time. But he is so messed-up in the head and all his various goals (revenge! power! love! good opinion of his conscience, however little is left! etc!) are all hopelessly messed up.
I really think that what drives him most up the wall about GJ is not martial arts teaching refusal or good fortune or whatever, but GJ's inner peace and moral certainty. It's something YK never had even before he went bad - his circumstances were always a lot more screwed up.
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