This fever I’ve been running for two months makes me strangely happy, just like the last line of your letter: Preserving Elaine’s Beautiful Commentary

From the very beginning of this YouTube channel, there’s been one subscriber whose comments have consistently blown me away. Elaine’s responses aren’t just typical YouTube comments – they’re meaningful, thoughtful pieces that sometimes feel almost like poetry. Her words carry weight, nuance, and a depth of understanding that transforms our comment section into something resembling a literary salon.

When I received her latest long-form comment, I knew I couldn’t let it simply get swept away by the relentless tide of time that drowns so much online discourse. This moving commentary deserved more than to be buried under newer posts and forgotten. I wanted to preserve it here. 💗

So here it is – Elaine’s beautiful reflection, broken down paragraph by paragraph, with my responses woven throughout. Because sometimes the most profound conversations happen not in conference rooms or lecture halls, but in the humble comment sections of YouTube channels dedicated to dissecting Korean dramas at 1 AM.

Elaine writes:

Hi Jennie. I’ve been enjoying and grateful for this too. Very much so. It’s fun, good mental exercise, and like you say, it’s a cross-cultural learning thing as well. It’s nice to be surprised by people’s different insights, especially if they’re very different from your own. Things we couldn’t figure out by ourselves 🙂

안녕하세요 제니. 저도 이런 교류를 정말 즐기고 있고 감사하게 생각해요. 정말로요. 재미있고, 훌륭한 두뇌 운동이 되기도 하고, 말씀하신 대로 문화 간 학습의 기회라고 생각합니다. 특히 나와 상대가 매우 다른 관점을 가질 때, 서로의 다른 통찰에 감명받는 것도 좋습니다. 혼자서는 알아낼 수 없었던 것들이니까요 🙂

Of course, I could tell that you are trying to wind down a bit while we are still hungry for more. Which is a tricky situation as you’re entering the monetisation phase. (Today’s video had three ad breaks in it … not bothersome and a good sign … because it means that you might actually earn more than snack money over time). Still, it must be unnerving to have a boss and coworkers watching like that, and your bread is definitely buttered at your real job, so that’s obviously the very clear priority. So, I hope you keep going with this while watching your back on the things that are vital 🙂

물론, 저희는 여전히 더 많은 콘텐츠를 갈망하고 있는데 당신이 조금씩 속도를 줄이려고 하시는 것 같다는 걸 알 수 있어요. 수익화 단계에 접어드시는 상황에서는 참 까다로운 상황이죠. (오늘 영상에는 광고가 세 번 나오더라고요… 거슬리지 않았고 좋은 신호예요… 시간이 지나면서 용돈 수준보다는 올라가게 될 거라는 뜻이니까요). 그래도 상사와 동료들에게 발각될까 신경 쓰일 수밖에 없을 것 같아요. 당신의 수익은 확실히 본업에서 나오는 거고, 생업이 당연히 명확한 우선순위겠죠. 그러니 가장 중요한 점을 잘 챙기시면서 이 일도 계속 해주시길 바라요 🙂

Your plan to do fewer but consistent updates is a good one, I think. Following Park Ji-hoon and Choi Hyun-wook (and Yoo Su-min) is a solid plan too. D.P. and Kill Bok-Soon are both excellent, high-intensity choices with cool characters. And I’m pretty sure that there will be a WHC 3. Truthfully, I’m not sure WHC can be beaten for having intensity, lots of psychological character angles, and solid societal critiques to explore. It’s an unusual masterpiece that I hadn’t fully appreciated until now.

업로드 주기는 길어지겠지만, 꾸준한 업데이트를 하시겠다는 계획이 좋은 것 같아요. 박지훈과 최현욱(그리고 유수민 감독까지) 배우의 작품을 팔로우하시겠다는 계획도 탄탄하고요. D.P.와 길복순 둘 다 훌륭한 작품이며, 강렬하면서 멋진 캐릭터들이 나오죠. 그리고 약한영웅 시즌3도 분명히 나올 것 같아요. 솔직히 말하면, 극이 주는 임팩트와 캐릭터들 다각도로 들여다본 연출, 그리고 탐구할 만한 탄탄한 사회 비평적 요소들을 갖춘 면에서 약한영웅을 뛰어넘는 작품이 있을지 확신이 서지 않아요. 지금까지 제가 보기 어려웠던 특별한 수작입니다.

Things like Shop for Killers, Strangers from Hell and Extracurricular are high energy and edgy too but they have none of the warmth and humanity that WHC has. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is intense with psychological and societal angles to explore, and it also has some memorable shock value in the finale. Alchemy of Souls might, maybe, work. Despite being a fantasy, it has surprising depth and all the angles for a deep dive. And Sky Castle definitely has everything too … But … they all came out quite a while ago, and the wave may have passed on them. Although, I think you will know much more about that than me.

킬러들의 쇼핑목록, 타인은 지옥이다, 인간수업 같은 작품들도 역동적이고 날카롭긴 하지만, 약한영웅이 주는 따뜻함과 인간성은 전혀 없어요. 미소가 사라진 그 눈은 심리적이고 사회적인 측면들을 탐구하기에 강렬하고, 피날레에서 기억에 남을 만한 충격적 가치도 있고요. 환혼은… 아마도, 어쩌면 될 수도 있을 것 같아요. 판타지임에도 불구하고 놀라울 정도로 깊이가 있고 심층 분석할 만한 모든 시사점들이 있거든요. 그리고 스카이 캐슬도 분명히 모든 요소를 다 갖추고 있어요… 하지만… 이 작품들이 모두 꽤 오래전에 나온 작품들이라서, 그 열풍이 지나갔을 수도 있어요. 물론 이런 건 제니가 저보다 훨씬 더 잘 아실 것 같지만요.

Anyway … I hope you don’t leave WHC behind altogether. It’s too precious, and I think that there’s much hope for our beloved characters to experience good things and a great resolution in S3. But I’ll keep following you to see wherever you go next because you obviously have good taste in dramas, valuable insights and a really cool way of thinking about things. You bring ideas, insights, observations, research and inspiration together masterfully; you write very well with clarity and fluidity, and your video quality is more than good enough already. 

어쨌든… 약한영웅에 대한 영상을 올리는 것을 완전히 그만두지 않으셨으면 좋겠어요. 너무나 소중한 작품이고, 우리가 사랑하는 캐릭터들이 시즌 3에서 행복한 일들을 경험하고 훌륭한 결말을 맞이하는 것을 볼 희망이 충분히 있다고 생각해요. 하지만 제니가 어떤 방향으로 가시든 계속 팔로우업 하겠습니다. 극을 보는 안목도 뛰어나시고, 가치 있는 통찰력과 정말 멋진 사고방식을 가지고 계시거든요. 아이디어, 통찰, 관찰, 리서치, 그리고 영감을 마스터급으로 하나로 엮어내시고, 명확하고 유창하게 정말 잘 쓰시며, 영상 퀄리티도 이미 충분히 좋아요.

Actually, I’m trying to eek out a response to your last website blog post because I think you’ve pretty much nailed it in your conclusions about Si-eun, and that makes me strangely happy. So, see you around, Jennie, and have a great weekend. 

사실 제니의 마지막 웹사이트 블로그 포스트에 답글을 써보려고 애쓰고 있어요. 시은이에 대한 결론을 거의 완벽하게 맞히셨다고 생각하거든요. 그게 이상하게도 저를 행복하게 만들어요. 그럼 또 뵐게요, 제니! 좋은 주말 보내세요.

My response:

Elaine, hope you’re having a good weekend!

You probably know by now that I mostly put together my videos on my tablet during my train commute to and from work. I’m working to pay the bills, and since content creation isn’t my day job, it’s pretty much impossible to make these videos unless I carve out time during my commute.

When I first started uploading content about Weak Hero, it was basically me talking to myself – completely unorganised personal thoughts that I’d quickly jot down as a script and rush through with AI voice-over. Setting up the channel took less than 15 minutes. And this might sound totally cliché, but when I posted that first audio, I genuinely didn’t expect a single comment. The audio quality wasn’t great, I was using AI dubbing, and I hadn’t even thrown in any images or video clips.

Just like Su-ho who sliced through Si-eun’s walls like butter – showing up with that wrong delivery and cheekily asking for “some water” before chugging straight from the bottle – I stumbled across this masterpiece called WHC completely by chance. A friend of mine who mainly does adolescent psychological counselling had actually recommended it to me three years ago when it first came out, but I’d completely spaced on it. It wasn’t until Season 2 dropped on Netflix and Season 1 got moved over too that I finally got around to watching this gem – thanks to Netflix’s deep pockets, really.

I’m not sure if the planning team mapped this timeline out on purpose, but around the same early summer when Si-eun, Su-ho, and Beom-seok first crossed paths in Class 1-6 at Byeoksan High, I – as I always joke – “got into a car accident because of this drama and tumbled down the rabbit hole.” I’ve watched countless shows in my life, but hardly anything has hit me as deep as Weak Hero. This might sound like word play, but it’s been like running a fever all early summer, and it’s been going on for two months now… 💗

Because of work commitments – and I’m being playful here again – around mid-July when Su-ho becomes the sleeping prince, I’ll probably need to start wrapping up this feverish early summer cold. But I’m definitely planning to keep following Choi Hyun-wook, Park Ji-hoon, and Director Yoo Su-min’s next projects.

As you’ve probably picked up on, over these two months of making audio content and naturally adding video skills, I’ve been able to put out better quality videos while cooling down the heat of this fever I’ve been running. If I hadn’t gotten all these thoughts about this show down in writing – about Si-eun, Su-ho, and Beom-seok, these boys who are maybe just puzzle pieces of elements and faces we see in our everyday lives – if I’d just kept mulling it over in my head 😂, I probably would’ve been staring at the ceiling or gazing out the window so often while typing at work that I’d be on the verge of getting fired 😂.

Like you said, getting to pour out and organize my thoughts about this excellent work – Weak Hero – and going beyond that (this is the most meaningful part for me) having deep conversations, almost discourse-level discussions about the work and characters with overseas fans who love this show as much as I do, who don’t want it to just get swept away by time or pushed aside by new OTT releases or consumed once and forgotten – that’s been the most valuable and meaningful thing I’ve done these past two months. As you put it, it’s been excellent brain exercise.

Having over a thousand subscribers discover the channel, and people taking their own time to leave their thoughts about the show on my channel – all of this feels like nothing short of a miracle to me, like an unexpected autumn harvest I never dared hope for.

If I can share a bit about my real situation for a moment… before watching Weak Hero, I was dealing with some serious work burnout. But watching this show, seeing Su-ho through Si-eun’s eyes, even wanting to understand Beom-seok better and buying the script book to read through it, then sharing the meaning I read between the lines with countless international subscribers and having these discussions – ironically, I started feeling my burnout fade away. I used to always be exhausted after work and would usually doze off on the train, but pulling out my tablet to make videos and engaging with commenters, I didn’t feel a trace of tiredness. I could clearly sense that the time and energy I was putting into this show was transferring to me as this “happy warmth.”

Maybe this warmth that’s lasted two months, this hot fuel that’s kept me constantly dubbing audio and making videos, was what Seong-je would call foolishly, naively “romantic.” So of course, it gets a “romantic pass” 😂

As you mentioned, I’m grateful that monetisation kicked in – it covers the subscription fee for my video editing software, which I’m thankful for. On the flip side, I often see other YouTube videos using this show as source material pop up in my main feed through auto-recommendations or algorithms. Some videos rack up hundreds of thousands of views, and I’m absolutely not making value judgments about other people’s videos, but I’ve seen quite a few cases where AI is used to caricature or literally “ruin” Weak Hero characters or footage, pulling out very sensational images for thumbnails.

Sure, eye-catching content that scores high view counts translates to revenue and fatter pockets, but if I wanted to make “money,” I’d probably just put in more overtime at my day job or work toward a promotion. So the Weak Hero content I upload to my YouTube channel or blog is probably going to be somewhat boring and less engaging compared to other content out there.

And sometimes it hits me that most people aren’t really interested in deep discourse about works or analysing characters from various angles and cultural perspectives. So maybe all these deep conversations we’ve shared over two months might just seem like pretty unreasonable “old-fashioned” chatter to some people. (In Su-ho style: “Do comment exchanges put food on the table or what?” 😂)

That’s why, like Seong-je said, this “romantic” discourse and cultural exchange, and keeping this masterpiece called Weak Hero alive in some tiny corner of the online world instead of consuming it once and sending it to the back of our memories – this fever I’ve been running for two months makes me strangely happy, just like the last line of your letter, Elaine.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Below is a letter I sent to Elaine, which contains my organized thoughts that I myself want to remember..

… that touching comment you left, especially the last line where you said you’d reached my own conclusion about Si-eun and it seemed spot-on, and how that made you feel ‘strange’ and happy, when I read that final line, I could just feel what you meant and where you were coming from.

당신이 남긴 그 감동적인 댓글, 특히 마지막 줄에서 시은에 대한 제 결론이 정곡을 찌르는 것 같다고 하면서 그 결론이 당신을 ‘이상하게’ 행복하게 만들었다고 했을 때, 당신이 무슨 말을 하는지, 어디서 오는 감정인지 느낄 수 있었어요.

I think because people might get swept away by actor Park Ji-hoon’s beautiful face, they could easily miss this, but I believe the Si-eun that Director Yoo, wanted to portray was a boy precariously living his life on the edge of a mental state that’s prone to collapse (and maybe that’s only natural…), a child dealing with mental illness (possibly experiencing something on the autism spectrum, as you once pointed out). And this boy, even without perfect grades, even if it meant getting blood on his hands, wanted to prevent something precious from falling apart.

박지훈이란 배우의 아름다운 얼굴에 홀려 잊을 수도 있지만… 유수민 감독님이 그리고 싶었던 시은은 ‘붕괴되기 쉬운’ (그리고, 그게 어쩌면 자연스러운…) 정신 위에서 아슬아슬하게 삶을 연명해가는 소년, 정신 질환을 (당신이 한번 지적했듯이 자폐 스펙트럼의 일종을 경험했을 수 있었던)을 앓고 있는 아이였다고 생각해요. 그리고 이 소년은 – 완벽한 성적이 아니더라도, 손에 피가 묻는다고 해도 – 소중한 무언가가 무너지는 것을 막고 싶어했어요.

(Watching Si-eun’s obsessive level of devotion to protecting Su-ho, even to the point of harming himself, I saw it as a kind of coping mechanism formed because he instinctively knew that the mental breakdown he’d face from losing Su-ho would be more agonizing than self-harm – his perfect grades getting disrupted by bullies, going on rampages despite the risk of school violence leaving a permanent stain on his record, taking group beatings meant for Su-ho, and all that revenge he carried out with no thought for tomorrow that should’ve landed him in juvenile detention… all of it was essentially ‘self-harm’ for Si-eun personally…)

(시은이 수호를 지키기 위해 스스로에게 해를 끼치는 강박적인 수준의 헌신을 보면서, 수호를 잃었을 때 겪게 될 정신적 붕괴가 자해 (완벽한 성적이 일진들에게 방해받아 어그러졌을 때, 학폭으로 인생에 오점이 남을 수도 있는데도 불구하고 폭주하거나, 수호 대신 집단 폭력에 해당하는 ‘다구리’를 대신 맞거나… 소년원에 보내지지 않은 것이 이상할 정도로 내일은 보지않고 일으킨 복수 모두, 시은이 개인에게는 ‘자해’에 가깝다…) 보다 더 괴로울 것을 직감했기 때문에 형성된 일종의 대처 메커니즘으로 봤어요…)

I came to realize that through this work, the director wanted to tell the story of an imperfect boy’s growth, how even without Su-ho, he could build healthier relationships with new friends at Eunjang High and keep growing.

이 작품을 통해 감독님이 말하고 싶었던 것은… 불완전한 소년의 성장 이야기, 강박적일 정도로 매달렸던 완벽한 성적이나, 정서적으로 깊게 연결된 애착 대상인 친구가 없이도 은장고에서 새로운 친구들과 더 건강한 관계를 맺으며 계속 성장해 나갈 수 있다는 치유와 희망을 보여주고자 했던 게 아닌가 싶습니다.

In Korea, we don’t have the same open conversations about mental health that you do in the West, and it’s hard to expect that. There’s still this heavy social atmosphere where people feel ashamed about going to therapy. It’s already well-known that Korea has the world’s lowest birth rate and highest suicide rate… a country facing extinction in the not-so-distant future.

한국에서는 서구 사회와는 달리 정신 건강에 대해 열린 대화를 다소 기피하는 분위기고, 기대하기도 어려워요. 치료받는 것을 내보이지 않는 암묵적인 사회적 분위기가 깔려있습니다. 한국이 세계 최저 출산율과 최고 자살률을 기록하고 있다는 건 이미 잘 알려진 사실이고… 머지않은 미래에 소멸 위기에 직면한 나라인 점도 잘 알려진 사실입니다.

I believe Directors Yoo Soo-min and Han Jun-hee borrowed a beautiful actor’s face to speak about this social pain through the character of Yeon Si-eun, while ultimately wanting to give us hope that healing and continuity are possible. And this is the meaningful topic I want to bring up last when the time comes to wrap up my thoughts on this masterpiece called Weak Hero. I think I’ve been running toward this point all along because this is the theme I ultimately wanted to talk about.

유수민 감독님과 한준희 감독님이 아름다운 배우의 얼굴을 빌려 연시은이라는 캐릭터를 통해 이러한 사회적 아픔에 대해 이야기하면서도, 결과적으로 우리는 치유와 지속이 가능하다는 희망을 주고 싶었다고 생각해요. 그리고 이 점이 약한영웅이라는 이 수작에 대한 제 감상을 마무리하는 시점이 오면, 마지막으로 꺼내고싶은 의미 있는 주제입니다. 결국 이 주제를 말하고 싶어 여기까지 달려온 것 같습니다.