#snake snake

The first two episodes are this inspiring backstory of this socially clumsy but very firmly set lion, who loses everything including his dad and dream job and nerves, gets imprisoned....by all means should be broken down. Except he comes out 2 years later with a 15 year plan how to get revenge on the impossibly powerful guy who did it to him. Cause he shouldn't be played with. Because he, Seroy, won't bow down to this monster, he should bow to him.

The way he can calmly and confidently go spew such unrealistic idealism makes people think he is mad...or scared or insanely inspired and loyal. Seroy's roaring lion gets people around him, loyal people who breathe for his dream, who do everything in his footsteps. His employees love and admire him. His arch enemy doesn't have a reason to fear him, yet can't stop getting pissed off by his mere existence.

That's the power Seroy has.

At the same time his method is a subtle, kind hard work. That's Seroy in a nutshell. When he currently isn't saving someone from injustice and refusing to bow down, he is...at work. Slow and steady. It's all in the people and trust. He can make it, be it 5, 10 or 15 years. His goals will be fulfilled and he will get enough money, people, right the wrongs. He will get his way through steady effort and honest work. Cheating never comes into question. Protection or using contacts...don't either. Seroy will suffer to abide the law just to not get any unfair cheats from anyone. He will rather take responsibility than the easy way out.

This is both, heartwarming and awe-inspiring and incredibly frustrating to watch. Especially if you are his slightly sociopathic double snake manager Ji-so. This girl is a genius and as egotistical and self-seving as it gets. She talks with people cause they are rich or have something she wants. But she is also incredibly bored by the inevitable predictability of everyone around her...except Seroy. Seroy, whose crazy morals and kindness principles don't make sense. Seroy, who is walking around all proud lion when he has nothing, no advantages, no talent, no capable employees or strategies.

From that point on, everything and everyone in Ji-so's life turns around her boss Seroy. He is the one she works for, protects, makes rich and famous. He is everything. Even when his logic and principles clash with practicality, even when Ji-so with her ruthless playful sneaky tactics would get his goal faster, she listens to him. She completely readjust her moral compass and methods so they align with his. She is his snake through and through.

Seroy doesn't fight for himself, he has high goals, revenge plans in the making, helps people around and works all honestly. It doesn't make sense to young Ji-so and she gets completely obsessed. Then fascinated. And then falls head over heels in love with him.

Funnily enough, O-Soo, Seroy's childhood friend and long term love interest is a snake too. She is only in it for herself. As an orphan, she learned to look out for her survival with all means necessary. If surviving means being quiet and submissive, so be it. If surviving and prospering means working for the guy who killed her father-figure and the dad of her best friend...so be it. There are many heart-breaking moments between her and Seroy, when she apologises to him that she has to do this. That she has to choose herself above him and everyone else's good, cause that's just how it is. She can't do it any other way. And she feels guilty for it because Seroy is her person. And in a very very round about logic, she is doing it for him, for her own secret 20 year old plan of revenge. But by doing the best for him she effectively kicks herself from her own group. She betrays him, spies on him, warns him about it, but he always reassures her it's fine, those are your morals, your convictions, I can understand this.

But she is doing it for him and for the group, except she can't be with them while she does it and ends up alone. That's why she spends the show absolutely miserable, hoping for attention and love she saboteges to pay back the debt nobody asked her to pay to the one person who had treated her right.

The biggest foil to Seroy's efforts and actions is his main enemy. The impossible to defeat the Chairman who ruins Seroy's life, because the little lion refuses to bow down. In a way this makes the chairman a lion as well. His goal, purpose and feel is the company. And his pride and conviction that he is the strongest and therefore should always be winning.

In the flashbacks it seems like he did it for his family, like he build the empire for them and cares about them, but in the end the Chairman cares about the image and about his pride and ego, not about the actual people he is protecting.

Even if Seroy and the Chairman show many parallels, from starting their companies with little to big goals and inspiring roaring lion cores, they differ mainly in the methods. Chairman is a sneaky underhanded snake where Seroy is a kind hard worker. Seroy can never forgive the intimidation, contacts, masks and everything the Chairman is willing to do to get his wins and wants. Where the Chairman corrupts, lies and blackmails, whatever works best for the situation, does Seroy choose to be honest, slow, do things through his own hands.

Yet Seroy gets fuled and inspired by the Chairman despite and maybe because of the hatedred. He only and finally loses his pride, when he realizes how much he cares about Ji-so (her showing her love through helping Seroy achieve his goals is the best way to get to a lion primary) that he is willing to kneel for her. That the Chairman would go as low as to threaten her life is the last drop for him. Seroy loses all his respect for him for this and never turns back. Even when he finally gets the Chairman on his knees in turn does he care half as much as he thought.

I'm not all that sure about the rest of the side-characters. The transgender cook is mainly a badger secondary through her hard work ways and fellow younger ex-gangster's loyalty and inspiration through Seroy makes me guess me think snake primary. Maybe they are all snake primaries really, cause they make big stands for each other, driven by dreams, ambitions, self-gain in a very natural, unapologetic way.

Very curious case is Kun-so, who stars out so shy and beat down. Everyone kept convicing him that as illegitimate second son of the Chairman, he had no right to want anything for himself that he just seemed like such a kind, shy, polite boy. When he fell in love with Jin-So and realized he was losing her to Seroy who he admired, he quit and tried to take over the Chairman's company by being his son and turning to his image.

It didn't work out, and not because it didn't feel right. That is not a factor for him. It just didn't prove effective. Seroy wins the fight against his father, so he is obviously the one in the right. Kun-so is lost in how much he wanted, in the unstoppable greed of desiring things for himself. Did he explode as a snake? Somehow he still stays sympathetic and likeable through all his moral switches and betrayals.

Maybe it's because of his badger secondary. The kid just needs to set a goal and an idol and then he succeed through doing the hard work. Doing his best to do what's asked of him, whatever that may be. You want me caring? Okay. You want me heartless? Okay too. Huh. The switching around of morals and personalities depending on what he decides now makes me think he might be a Bird primary. He is the one who doesn't know what he wants and feels lost, except knowing he won't be like his father. He is the one who sets his goal on taking over the company once Jin-so says that will win her over. And he simply accepts Seroy's reasons and explanations for everything, simply adapting them into his code. When Seroy says he is a kid and can forgive himself, then it must be true and Kun-so accepts it as part of his new truth.

O-Soo's methods seem super sneaky. She spies and and she stabs in the back...but she doesn't enjoy it and she isn't sneaky about it. She doesn't hide it, she even apologies and warns before doing it again. Her whole 15 years old plan worked even better than Seroy's and she did it with less people, from the inside, despite how incredibly deplorable it made her feel. Doesn't that make her a good candidate for Bird secondary? She made her plan and went with it. Preparations through all her positions, through all the years, from the inside the lion's den. Meticulous and detailed, to bring down the Chairman. Great bird. Snake Bird also fits her villainous vibes until the last episode.

Seroy - Lion / Badger

O-Soo - Snake / Bird

Jin So - Snake / Snake

Chairman - exploded Lion / Snake