As you are a big fan of BE, can I ask you a (maybe weird) question about it? Have you ever noticed that the world of BE seems to have no romance or sex? There are so many different characters, but almost all of them are single, widowed, or divorced. There is only one almost token couple (that expects a child), and Lee Changjin who pines after Oh Jihwa, and that one time Minjung flirted with Juwon, and that's it. The romance subplot with Jaeyi never materialized. Even the serial killer who attacked sex workers didn't do anything explicitly sexual to them. As a result, the drama focuses on bonds between friends, family, and found family.
I really appreciate this aro-ace depiction of passion and tension. But I do suspect that it was a (lucky) coincidence. Obviously, the drama leaves characters' relationships to sex and romance open to different interpretations. Still, it's so unusual for a story that isn't a shounen manga, for example, to have so little to do with those things.
Have you ever wondered about that?
ohhh boy i have a lot of thoughts about the lack of romance in beyond evil and i will GLADLY yap about this so.
BEYOND EVIL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
(i am a. minor so i dont feel comfortable talking abt the lack of sex in BE. sorry anon i shouldve mentioned im a minor in my bio lol (which i will go add now))
As a beyond evil enjoyer on the aro-ace spectrum, i was honestly so glad the first time i watched the show, because i was so certain jaeyi and joowon would end up together, simply because. there's such an obsession with romance subplots in media today (and there always has been, honestly).
Honestly, I've always seen the lack of romantic relationships a very deliberate choice that emphasises the other types of relationships within the shows- in a lot of media, romance seems to take the front seat, and overshadows the familial and platonic relationships. Which, you know, fair enough. It's hard to pay attention to the more 'subtle' relationships when two characters making out is way less nuanced and their relationship is much more clearly defined.
I also think a large reason we don't get any romance in Beyond Evil is to further the characterisation of the women in the show. Let's face it, we were never going to get a canon queer relationship in the show, so any romance would be between a man and a woman. In a show that places so much importance on woman being characters beyond just love interests, a romantic subplot would reduce a lot of that effect.
It's an unfortunate thing, but I see it happen a lot in other shows, movies, books, and other franchises, and while I'm certain the writing in Beyond Evil would allow them to remain relevant and well characterised, their journeys and standings in the show would be... a lot worse with romance.
I think Jaeyi is the best example of this. There was a clear set-up for a romantic relationship with her and Joowon, even if they never ended up going down that route. But I think them ending up together would go against what each of them stands for. Joowon needed to remain the outsider in Manyang, and Dongsik needed to be the one that ultimately brought him in. That is such an important part of the show, and having Joowon end up with Jaeyi would make that plot point essentially redundant. Dongsik's effect on Joowon would mix together with Jaeyi's, and the part of the show built so deeply on Dongsik and Joowon's relationship would mean nothing.
While it would still manage to come through, I think the fact that neither Dongsik nor Joowon ended up in a romantic relationship allowed for their effect on each other to be so much clearer. We see Dongsik and Joowon at the beginning of the show, and then we see them so different at the end, and we know that this happens because of each other. That the difference in how they are is because of each other. And that is SUCH an important message for Beyond Evil that a romantic subplot would've dimmed.
As for characters like Kihwan, Dongsik's mother, Jinmook, Jeongje (and maybe his mother? honestly no clue if his dad is alive or not) Changjin and Jihwa (there's probably others I cant remember right now), who all end up divorced/with a dead spouse/partner, I think the lack of romance helps show the theme of loss that's so immensely present in the show. The show spends a lot of time discussing loss.
This is most clear with Dongsik and his sister, but also present in other relationships like Jaeyi and her mother, and Bang Ju-seon and her father.
The characters who lose their romantic partners in one way or another are, I think, a great representation of handling grief and the loss of a loved one within the show. We see Changjin, who is still in love with Jihwa and who still desires the relationship from their past, and Jihwa, who wants nothing to do with him. While nowhere near as dramatic as having a spouse, sibling, parent or child die, they have experienced loss. They're both still alive and well, but there's still a void that remains where a spouse once was. It shows that someone doesn't need to die for you to loose them, a theme that is extremely relevant in the show, especially further down the line with Joowon and Kihwan.
For Kihwan, who's wife is dead, we see him completely uncaring of the fact. In fact, the only time his wife is mentioned after her death is for him to discredit her, to insult Joowon and say that he is 'just like his mother'. There's no love in their relationship. There never was. His relationship with his wife is such a harsh juxtaposition compared to the relationship of, say, Dongsik's parents. His mother quite literally went mad with grief after the death of her husband and child, while Kihwan barely bats an eye as she passes, and he's more than eager to send Joowon away when he presents himself as a weakness.
The romance of Dongsik's parents vs the lack of romance with Joowon's parents is one that is fundamental to who they are as a person, to how they interact with others and their relationship with their friends and family, and the lack of other romantic relationships in the show really helps to highlight this as well.
While there's no romantic subplot within the show, it's extremely easy to interpret a lot of the occurrences in the show as such. Joowon getting on his knees and essentially pledging his life to Dongsik, his aversion to touch and how he so easily touches Dongsik by the end of the show, a shit ton of other examples that I can't think of right now. Even if you dont ship jwds, it's pretty difficult to deny how romantic some of their interactions are. And sure, it can just as easily be read as platonic, but a lot of the scenes in this show seem like they're written with a very clear romantic subtext.
You can argue that this is just me reading into things too much (likely) or argue that it's just queerbaiting, especially with the internets obsession with mlm ships, but honestly it's hard to deny that joowon and dongsik's actions would widely be accepted as romantic if they were a male and a female. I think Beyond Evil is filled with a sort of romance in it's own way, and while not explicitly canonised, Dongsik and Joowon do love each other. Even if you don't approach their relationship from a romantic standpoint, you cannot say that they're just friends.
In short. Beyond Evil needed to not have romance in order for the characters to be themselves.
aughh idk how to word my thoughts?? hope this came off eloquently enough. did NOT mean to yap this much. uhm. i still have more to say but uhhh. maybe i should. take a break LOL. thanks for the ask, i love any chance to yap abt beyond evil <3 explodes.
