#plot thoughts

Imagine your world where we exist, without being a tragedy, a burden, or (functionally) erased.

Back in 2019, I came up with my own metric for Disability Representation in stories, inspired by the Bechdel-Wallace Test.

I named it the "1,001 Problems Template"

There's a disabled character,

Who wants something,

Beyond Revenge, Cure, or Death,

And personally takes action to achieve it.

I decided to call it a "Template," rather than "test," because I hope that it's a useful tool, and not something to Pass or Fail. 1,001 Problems, because, Yeah. Disability can be a bitch, but characters can have 1,000 other things they're dealing with, too. And you can write a story about any one of them.

The point being: If you can imagine us as part of your make-believe future, and fairy tale past, then it's easier to include us in your real world present.

*With the understanding, of course, that not all readers want the same thing [/standard "Your mileage may vary" disclaimer]

Mordred burned himself when he tried to practice magic just like Morgause. Maybe he has some talent to it, but no knowlege. And trying to do magic based on pieces of spells you heard while sneaking into your mothers chambers is a bad idea. Anyway Garreth and Gaheris were ther to help their little brother, so he survived, but got a scar for the rest of his life.

Like I’m typically down for some brutal torture, but there is a certain point where it becomes impossible to believe that the character wouldn’t be dead or at least unconscious. I’m not saying you have to know how many lashes or cuts or how much blood loss would be fatal or the causes of death or whatever, but what I am saying is that at least for me, it needs to be reasonable for me to really enjoy the story. For example, few people can survive being whipped in the hundreds, and malnourished or already injured characters are certainly going to survive even less and would at least pass out during it. And that’s not just the blood loss involved but the body’s exertion and pain threshold, so burning or stitching the wounds closed would not necessarily make it more survivable. It also would be very exhausting for the torturer to do that in one set without taking breaks and stuff, but I’m not saying you have to show that or that you can’t be unrealistic because the human body has limits and is more fragile than is typically depicted, but it should be at least believable even in an unrealistic universe.

Written 7/20/25. Please refer to my blog for Part 1 and Part 3!

Featuring:

Part 2: SHOULD THIS STAND ALONE? HOW WOULD A SEQUEL WORK?      

With KPDH’s success and exploding fandom, everyone wants a sequel! I’m here to pose the difficult question of… does it even need one? Let’s quickly break down the arguments for keeping it standalone:

1: The Standalone Argument

A: Many people will say, “THEY DIDN’T CREATE THE GOLDEN HONMOON! IT CAN’T END”.  I agree that creating the golden Honmoon would be a perfect “ending”, but I have 3 counter arguments.

A1: The New Honmoon Might be Better???

The Honmoon in the end seemed to have a rainbow sheen like Rumi’s patterns. Could the “rainbow” Honmoon be stronger than the Golden Honmoon? This could be a perfect conclusion; the old Honmoon which represented an archaic ideology is gone, and the new Honmoon is iridescent and stronger then the Gold Honmoon ever could be. This leaves HUNTR/X to live normal lives as musicians doing what they love. That could be a justification given to not needing a sequel.

A2: Gwi-Ma Defeated??

Going on the same logic to justify a standalone, we saw Gwi-Ma manifest in the human world as well as his subsequent quashing with HUNTR/X working together as one. This could be as much of a conclusion on the fate of the demon king as we'd need! Sometimes leaving things simple is more effective then trying to expand on reasoning for every little thing.

A3: Leave You Wanting More

How do you choose when to end a story? If the Golden Honmoon is created, HUNTR/X’s adventures permanently end, and so do all future adventures of hunters everywhere. Is it more satisfying to know that they’ll continue to fight through the generations to protect the world from Demons? If any variation of a permanent Honmoon is established, then any future excitement with this world and characters dies. Sometimes knowing the adventures will continue is more impactful then seeing everything wrapped up in a neat bow.

2: How would a Sequel Work?

To establish this you need to understand what made the first film work, and the concept of increasing stakes over an established plot. Increasing Stakes dictates that the story that follows needs to be more complex, on a larger scale, and have even higher stakes then the first film. This is how you elevate a story from its previous heights and prevent “disappointing sequel syndrome”. Looking at a film from the same studio, The Spiderverse Movies, shows how this can be done. Let’s now look into what made the first film work and how the writers would need to elaborate on these points to create an engaging sequel.

A: What Made the First Film Work?

A1: The Songs!

Specifically how each of the songs serves the larger plot and had thematic weight over the course of the story. Each song had a role to play in the scope of the greater story, with nothing feeling shoehorned in, and each having some king of double meaning in the lyrics or implications to the main story. They would need to pull this off AGAIN with AT LEAST the same number of songs as the first film. What kind of plot would warrant a new set of specific songs?

A2: Novelty of the double life + Korean Mythology|

The first film focused heavily on the double life of our trio and lightly on the Korean mythology of the demons and other aspects of its historical culture. You would need to introduce new stakes or new concepts to make sure these elements don’t get stale. Believe it or not, cool actions scenes can get boring without any weight and seeing the trio gear up too many times could get old without the right plot to elevate WHY they’re doing it or HOW they’ll maintain their secrecy in this.

A3: Themes of Mental Health and Psychology

You could argue that any character that goes through an arc has “psychology” but the film takes great pains in illustrating many character’s inner conflicts and setting high emotional stakes for Rumi and Jinu. In order to feel a sense of investment and continue to let our main trio grow, we need to put obstacles in their paths that challenge their sense of self and force them to overcome and change. Stagnant characters are boring characters. Having a great emotional hook is what made the first film work so well.

A4: Modern Korean Culture and the Main Trio’s Chemistry

Korean culture is essential to the identity of this movie, and by extension, our main trio’s chemistry is also rooted in that culture. They definitely had some women in the writing room because these three felt like real, believable friends AND people. Carrying on this level of engaging character dynamics would be essential for a sequel. Also, we get glimpses into how modern Korean culture treats the K-POP industry, albeit VERY lightly. I wasn’t expecting “Oshi No Ko” levels of exposé into the industry, but I think it told just enough to avoid risking its appeal to the Korean market.

This leads us to:

B: What Could A Sequel Do to be Actually Good?

There are infinite things a theoretical KPDM sequel could be, but the discussion here is what would make a GOOD sequel. Remember, our main goals are raising the stakes in a meaningful way, and expanding on what made the first film successful: multi-purpose songs, novelty of their double life/Korean Mythology, Themes of mental health, and modern Korean culture/Chemistry of our Trio.

There’s a number of common tropes they could pull that, if done wrong, could be really lazy or predictable. After all, at its heart this is an IP about music. There’s always the possibility of it being done well, but here are some ideas I’d rather not see:

                -The “band has external obligations and we might have to split up?!” Storyline

                -Singing Tournament/Competition

                -Oh no! ANOTHER rival group!?!  

Before I talk about plotlines a sequel could explore, let’s talk about what I feel NEEDS happen in some capacity for a sequel to be GOOD.

B1: More focus on Zoey and Mira

Contrary to what many people say, I don’t think the decision to focus more on Rumi was a flaw of the film at all! At its core, the first film was about Rumi’s story, and that’s okay! This time though, Zoey and Mira need to stand on equal footing with her, having their own plots and motivations that develop them independently of Rumi. Balancing stories for all 3 would be tough, but ultimately worth it.

B2: Repercussions 1: Celine

Celine was instrumental in not only establishing HUNTR/X but also was somewhat of a secondary villain in Rumi’s narrative. Their fallout is bound to have repercussions. I don’t expect or want a quick “everything is fine now” between them, but this tension is primed for some great storytelling and would build well off the content of the first film. Exploring the dynamic of a broken relation between a foster parent and child would be really interesting to see.

B3: Repercussions 2: Jinu

We’ve already established that I think Jinu should stay dead. Regardless, I think Jinu had such a profound impact on Rumi that he needs to haunt the narrative in some capacity.  Potential themes of grief or loneliness could be explored with the loss of Jinu as the catalyst.

B4: Expansion on Demons/Gwi-Ma

The origin of Gwi-Ma is unknown, the concept of Hunters is only briefly discussed, and the logistics behind regular people becoming demons is intriguing, with only Jinu as our main example. Are there different types of demons? Are there “pureblood” demons and created demons? If “pureblood” demons exist, how are they created? Do they all come from Gwi-ma? These worldbuilding questions are prime for answering.

B5: More Industry Stuff

Since this is a music story at heart, I’d like to see more scenes that give commentary on the K-POP Industry. You’d have to do this very carefully to not insult the target audience, but more scenes involving the music creation side of things would benefit the story as a whole I think.