#EAW episode 10

[aipaintchaos]

Going back home 🐋✨

[jdotjpegsworld]

random thoughts while commuting:

I can’t wait till Junho learns about minwoo’s clownery against Youngwoo cause we’ve seen how he already threw hands at a mere acquaintance for mistaking his love for her as “pity”, and how he once heard Minwoo badmouth his girl in a phone call. how much more about his roommate going too far as digging on Youngwoo’s background because of envy.

I just hate how minwoo resorts to those tactics just because he mistakingly thinks Youngwoo had it easy with getting in the firm and the team seemingly babying her. No. Youngwoo’s trying so hard to live a normal and quiet life which is already hard enough to achieve for any disabled person in a prejudiced society.

Geurami should throw a chair at him as well, plus she’s got terrible taste for crushing on someone like Minwoo who’s too busy plotting against her best friend.

[willievermakeithome]

When that little boy whispered “I wish to be liberated” I was like ME TOO BRO

[sakurastallion]

Ok can someone tell me what the "correct" interpretation of episode 10 was supposed to be? My opinion, as an autistic person, came out to be "nondisabed people talk over disabled people, both if they can or can't speak for themselves, and believe they know more than the disabled themselves."

Like I personally didn't get why the defendant was charged, was I supposed to be mad? I was!!! I can't tell from other people online if I was supposed to say "that's what he deserves!!!", I feel like I sympathize with the girl too much... is it like how young woo sympathized with her as well? We can't read others intentions? I thought he was an asshole but I totally thought that it IS ok for people to be in love with assholes. Was that not the point???

Whole post is a /gen, I literally don't get what the correct answer was supposed to be

[i-d-e-g-a-f]

JUNHO

YOU HAVE TO MEET HER HALFWAY

BEND UR GODDAMN NECK DOWN A LITTLE MORE THE POOR GIRL IS STRUGGLING

[writingsfromdreams]

Lee Junho constantly raising the bar for men, it's higher than the Burj Khalifa 😩

[sapphorarelyreads]

EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO EPISODE 10 review

i dont have an intellectual disability but my sibling does. I won't say I liked the case explored in the episode. it was like, like the writers wanted us to side with the defendent. Unless and until the victim can actually differentiate between sexual assault and consensual sex, the case cannot be made. Even if she did have consensual sex with the defendent, its not exactly her reasoning ability that stands in the way of making a point to this case but, its the fact that even small things, trivial stuff that can even go unnoticed could've coerced her and made her feel guilty when she didn't want to have sex with him. People can still be sexually assaulted by a person that they're in love with. i hate that choi su yeon kept saying that point. People who want to have sex can also experience sexual assault like consent is a legitimate thing that has to be considered. even if someone wanted to have sex earlier but doesn't at that moment, it still means that they are not giving consent.

[thecountesstribe]

🗣 EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO EPISODE 10! THAT'S THE POST!!!!!!

More kdrama with green flag men. I love this agenda😭😭😭

[mehamang]

"is taking you home not on here?" i'm very literally in love with him

[that-one-nerd-over-yonder]

Like even if Lee Junho is “too perfect” so what??? Do you realize how much media people consume with romance filled with toxicity? Especially when it comes to straight relationships??? Especially for women?? From a young age you read, watch, literally digest media that shows an unfeeling, uncaring, emotional (and sometimes physically) abusive character and are told “yea these are great trope”. You think that won’t bleed into real life? People inadvertently looking for these traits in partners and getting hurt? Like yea please just let the kids be alright with the one (1) ML who’s kind and caring and respects boundaries without getting all mad. For goodness sakes let people be happy with green flags.

[drowseyqueen]

I’m loving Attorney Jung and his “woah woah” method lmao

[waitmyturtles]

Oooooooookay. EAW episode 13 definitely has me spun. Quick thoughts, and more fleshed out after tomorrow’s episode. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS:

1) I saw on my dash a post about the fear that the writing is getting a touch trope-y, and I’ll admit, I am a little afraid of that, too. But that might be me being in denial that something bad is happening to Attorney Jung. He brings SO MUCH lift and equity to the show -- please don’t tear him down, writers.

[I did see some commentary about him maybe having a terminal illness (PLEASE NO), but I noticed he did a shot of soju* after his honeymoon reflection, so maybe not? Who knows. Please let this just be an ulcer, please. Hand over the Prevacid.]

2) I’m not seeing a redemption arc for Min-woo. Anything could constitute that parental reflection he made to Su-yeon. He clearly wanted Young-woo to overhear the news about Tae Su-mi -- he’s still on his bullshit. His idea of adulthood may very well be that you are an asshole** and you do whatever it takes to make it big/rich. 

I’m lightly betting that he wishes he could be a better person, but doesn’t know how, but that’s not a strong bet. He seems thin-skinned enough to contemplate going for Su-yeon, but is not attracted to her resistance. 

3) Speaking of trope-y, I’m a little afraid they’re setting Su-yeon up to fall for the wrong guys. She’s clearly looking around, and I don’t want the writers playing her insecurities like that. Don’t play my girl like that. Keep ya head up, Su-yeon. 

4) Here’s where I think the writing remains strong and genius. I really like what they do with the naming conventions with people who clearly don’t respect Young-woo -- like the gigolo bastard in ep. 10, and now with Jun-ho’s sister. The sister even goes so far as to call out Jun-ho for calling Young-woo “attorney,” and the sister uses “Young-woo” as her naming convention.

First off -- I don’t think Young-woo and Jun-ho break up. Like the resignation at the start of the series, I think this is a moment of contemplation for them both. I place my bet.

Secondly -- the volume of his voice faded down as the shot turned away from him, but I noticed the strong tone in Jun-ho’s voice as the camera panned to Young-woo. Guy was pissed.

What I like about Jun-ho as a character is that he’s not understanding why anyone would NOT respect Young-woo. For him, it’s a fundamental understanding. She’s a badass. She’s cute AF. 

HOWEVER. However. I think by now -- and maybe we’ll see it tomorrow, maybe -- I think I need to see Jun-ho reflect on the reality of how many people in society DO see Young-woo. I think he needs to reflect on that to himself and to her. If he insists that they’re dating, then date, because in dating, you talk, and this is something they’ll need to talk about. Seems like she’ll bring it up tomorrow, but he’s gotta show some balanced understanding, to her and to HIMSELF, that he’s aware of what happens in society. Because -- SHE’S AWARE. It’s going to affect her decision-making. He can’t be in denial to his sister or himself of what the disability biases are that Young-woo faces. Let’s see if we get that into words.

(I wonder if I’m pushing a Western culturally incompetent preference there, though. I wonder if I’m asking too much from the show.)

Okay, more tomorrow. 

******

NOTES! Feel free to skip:

*They’re drinking Jeju soju! It’s sooooooo goooood, y’all. If you can find it, get it! I love those blue bottles. Also, this video from a few years back totally makes me want to visit Jeju and gain 10 pounds.

**Family member of mine once told me, when they first joined a law firm at the start of their career, that the lecture for first-year associates was that in order to become a successful lawyer, you had to be an “equal-opportunity asshole.” Don’t be an asshole to some -- be an asshole to all. Said family member quit that firm. The Tumblr fam may be right, we may very well see an exit of our faves from Hanbada.

*** Geu-rami! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 

[willievermakeithome]

I really love Junho and Youngwoo’s dynamic, but especially at work

Junho is purely there to facilitate anything that gets complicated or that Youngwoo needs assistance with - it’s so nice to see that even if he’s confused or doesn’t understand what’s going on in her brain 🧠 he just follows along until there’s something that he can help with

Like when Youngwoo is talking to Shin, things are going perfectly swell and then there’s a slight miscommunication where both are confused - you can see Junho figuratively step in to clear things up and then back out again to let them continue

It’s so refreshing to see an intimate relationship between two people, where there’s really no micro managing of either actions or emotions of the autistic person

[drivingsideways]

i have distilled my negative feelings about ep 10 of EAW into a few things (tw rape/sexual assault)

The defendant wasn't just a "player", a "gigolo", a man who defrauded vulnerable women out of their money. He was a guy who specifically sought out women with disabilities, an entire class of people whom he describes as "soft and innocent". That seems either predatory or fetish-y to me.

He has no idea of consent, and perhaps specifically does not care about the consent of differently abled people. We know this from the get go because he refuses to address Woo Young-woo as "Attorney Woo" despite her repeatedly asking him to. He only finally listens to Su-yeon, when she shuts him down.

At no point in the proceedings is it disputed either by Shin Hye-young OR the defense that she said no at some point, and he then refused to stop, and said "it's not true love if you don't" and that's how that sexual encounter proceeds. This is a statement of fact, not feeling. It's a he said, she said, and apparently in this case they both agree on what was said. If that's the case, then, that's coercive rape, my friends. I don't know what the law in SK is re: this, but surely a "no" counts? (I didn't understand the term "quasi-rape" that was used in the translation, is that the same as coercive rape?)

When Woo Young-woo takes the case, Attorney Jung lays it out clearly- in sexual assault cases, you end up having to undermine the testimony of the survivor. The argument they choose is "She was in a romantic relationship and she didn't show any feelings of ill will or wanting to break it off with him after." Hoo boy. Writer nim, I know you know that sexual consent is situational. Romantic or marital relationships are not blanket consent. So the argument Hanbada is making, essentially, is that "her no didn't really mean no". Weirdly enough, that's exactly the argument that the prosecution is making- that you can't trust her words or her actions to mean what they say.

Shin Hye-yeon is very clear she doesn't want Jeong-il to be punished, but there is definitely an ambiguity about what she felt about the sexual encounter itself. And that's- perfectly valid! Perfectly normal. Don't many able bodied, neurotypical women have experiences that they write off as "bad sex", "just the way it is," or "he didn't know", or "he didn't mean it" all the way to "it's my fault really" and "we love each other". So when Woo Young Woo says, "You're an adult and the only person who can decide if you were assaulted or not is you", I absolutely get that and agree with it, because women should have control over how they frame their own lived experiences and what to do with them. But, in all the "consent is tricky" bit that was being pulled here, I would have liked some acknowledgement of the fact that our idea of consent is fundamentally warped by rape culture and misogyny, and that's true no matter whether you are neurodivergent or not. If the prosecution made one set of assumptions re: the situation, Woo Young Woo was eager to make another set of assumptions. Neither of the sides, in the end, actually listened to what Shin Hye-yeon wanted to say about her feelings, or even help her articulate them even to herself if it didn't fit the narrative they were building.

When the prosecution pulls out the "Ability to consent" card- which, I get was very much the point of this episode- instead of making a specious argument that blanket consent was present, I think the counter was to argue that if the State thinks that a 27 year old woman with an (alleged) developmental age of 13, is considered to have been competent enough to provide informed consent to working a job- physical and mental labour that we don't usually allow 13 year olds- then the State can't argue that she isn't able to provide consent in other situations just because of her disability. If she can consent to her body being used as labour, then she can damn well consent to it being used for pleasure. But this isn't the argument made, not even out of the court scenes by the writer. And believe me, I get it. Differently abled people are infantilized, and the fight against that has been an ongoing theme in the series. I know a large part of this episode is to parallel Woo Young-woo's burgeoning romance, and ableism that she and Jun-ho are subject to. I just think that conflating the "ability and right to love" with "the ability and right to provide informed consent to sex" and creating a sexual assault story line to go with it wasn't perhaps the best way to go about it. Yes, Shin Hye-yeon has the right to love a bad man; she isn't the first and won't be the last person to love a rapist. But when Woo Young Woo says "..even if I say it's love, if other people say it's not, then it's not", I was both sympathetic to the sentiment but also wildly in disagreement with how the argument to get to that line had been made in the previous fifty minutes.

[i-d-e-g-a-f]

me when i’m gonna kill tae sumi and kwon minwoo

[thepersona]

Extraordinary Attorney Woo: A classic in the making (Midseason spoiler-free review)

Whoa whoa!

I don't like to exaggerate, nor do I like giving out 10 stars willy-nilly, but so far this show has definitely deserved it. I've seen every episode at least twice since the beginning and Wednesdays can't come any sooner!

Disclaimer: I am not an expert in autism spectrum disorders so I can't comment on the accuracy beyond trivial observations.

Story: I love the pacing so far. The first episode was perfect in establishing the main characters and making the audience ask questions to be answered next week. This set the formula for subsequent episodes, and with the watercooler effect that we're experiencing, the viewers are constantly at the edge of their seat waiting for what's to come. I really appreciate how points of conflict are addressed at the appropriate time. For example, the drama surrounding Attorney Woo's family is hinted at by the end of ep. 2, confirmed at the end of ep. 6, then talked about by the end of ep. 8, with enough room in the rest of the show's run to elaborate. That's really good pacing. Older dramas would have waited around ep. 14 to do anything about it in a cheap attempt to get viewers to stay tuned.

There's something healing about this drama, whether it's the characters or the cases or the visuals, or maybe all of it combined. Almost everyone is likeable in the show but it doesn't ever feel too saccharine because of the weight of the cases (assault, murder, copyright disputes, gentrification). Young-woo has a great supervisor, a wonderful dad, a few amazing friends, and a huge green flag of a love interest. But she also has a big rival and critics who may or may not be set in their understanding of her.

I'm not the type to seek out romance in dramas, but the one featured here is healthy and seems to ask the right questions. (Episode 10 premiers tonight so I can't say more). I like that it's not romance for the sake of romance, but because it's just a part of life that Young-woo would have to encounter at some point. And personally, I pay more attention to Young-woo's friendship with Dong Geurami and Choi Su-yeon. I love how they look out for her but also talk to her the way they would talk to any other adult.

Acting / Cast: Park Eun-bin! I think many would agree that if she doesn't get recognized at Baeksang, then something is clearly wrong with their criteria. What a layered performance. We know that Young-woo is a genius but her intelligence still has limits, like in ep 6. She can also be blindsided by passion despite being awkward with emotions. On the other hand, we know she's not stupid and has a lot of common sense. She can be blunt and misread social cues but she's never annoying or overly cute. We see all of this in every scene. Her acting at the end of ep 8 alone is worth all the awards. You can see Young-woo processing complex feelings and choosing her words very carefully to react to what's been said to her.

The same could be said about the supporting cast and guest actors. I was particularly impressed by Moon Sang-hoon who played Kim Jeong hoon (Peng-soo) in ep. 3. Overall, the chemistry between all of them is undeniable and the director has done a marvellous job balancing these big personalities on screen.

Music: Adorable, warm, optimistic OST. My personal favorites are "Beyond My Dreams" by Sunwoojunga and "Inevitable" by Suzy. But the whole OST is fitting and the editing is appropriate in the show.

So why do I think that Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a classic in the making? It's because of the careful balance it manages to strike between sweet and realistic, funny and mature, healing and intriguing. The most beloved dramas tend to share these qualities but EAW has the advantage when it comes to its premise and setting. Young-woo's condition allows for a fresh take on emotions in a setting that deals with very emotional cases.

Midseason verdict: 10 / 10. Even if it’s not a whale.

(gif by casualscribbler)