I have waited until I had all first four episodes to watch them in one go (two days, fine) because I feared that in this recent deluge of series that appeared to end us, I might be too distracted to watch or remember the facts.
Also, I have not read the webtoon, so I probably have no idea about many things yet.
I have actually seen too much sci-fi secrecy shows/read too many such books to know where this is going (I'd love to be surprised though) and trusting people behind RUGAL project is absolutely off the table. They always have an agenda and all of the people they "helped", usually end up as expendables.
The outline reminds me a bit of a Faustian predicament - the doctor also signed the deal with the Mephistopheles not really understanding the consequences in their entirety and severity. I see the similar case here, as with every such deal. All of our four main RUGAL agents were - to borrow some angel's words - saved from the perdition.(1) The people behind the project literally saved their lives or even nearly resurrected them (Mina's case) but of course not out of the goodness of their hearts.
The series start with few gruesome murders - a team of police officers and detectives is killed while on a witness protection detail. No witness - no trial, so the man behind Argos, a powerful organization, can be freed and go and marry Choi Yewon. In the same wave of violence and retribution against Argos, Gang Gibeom and his wife are attacked, she ends up dead and he barely survives with gouged out eyeballs and accused of killing his wife. In prison, he is approached by Choi Geuncheol - the supervisor of RUGAL team, an elite special force sanctioned by NIS. All of the remaining 3 members of that team have also been plucked from the threshold of death and offered two things: new, enhanced life and a chance for revenge. As with every gift comes a caveat. Without the enhancement - they will all die within few hours, so it's not a cure but barely a band aid. I actually have my doubts here - maybe the scenario is false and used only to keep them in line? So, all of them have bionic parts: Gibeom has eyes, Tae-ung has an arm that packs a really mean punch, and Gwangcheol has replaced intestines because his own were burnt, and Mina - well, the rest I can perfectly understand but she was shot in the head so she has a chip to stop the massive hemorrhage. So that means she wasn't dead when Hwang Deukgu's men put her in the underwater container. In which she most likely died, though. No matter.
Just a quickie on the name Argos - etymologically it's linked to "field" or "white (plain)" and historically:Argos is traditionally considered to be the origins of the ancient Macedonian royal Greek house of the Argead dynasty (Greek: Ἀργεάδαι, Argeádai). The most celebrated members were Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. As a strategic location on the fertile plain of Argolis, Argos was a major stronghold during the Mycenaean era. In classical times Argos was a powerful rival of Sparta for dominance over the Peloponnese, but was eventually shunned by other Greek city-states after remaining neutral during the Greco-Persian Wars.(2)
The even more interesting part is with the word "rugal". Now, I couldn't find anything that made sense with it (my bet is for an acronym within the series, but as I said, I didn't read the webtoon, so I don't know) and then I changed it to "lugal". And this is it. It means "KING" or "RULER" in Sumerian. I was aware of the word "ensi" for a ruler in the ancient Sumer so this is actually a really nice information and I am off to read some more.
Because, according to Wiki:
Interestingly - it all fits.There are different theories regarding the meaning of the title lugal in 3rd-millennium Sumer. Some scholars believe that a ruler of an individual city-state was usually called ensi, and a ruler who headed a confederacy or larger dominion composed of several cities, perhaps even the whole of Sumer, was a lugal. The functions of such a lugal would include certain ceremonial and cultic activities, arbitration in border disputes, military defence against external enemies, and once the lugal has died, the eldest son must take over.(3)
As with every sci-fi show, I'm a bit skeptical going in. And I'm not a person to tear apart a show and nitpick over everything I know from other shows. Because that's the thing - it IS still the inner, complete creation. It has to remain within the rules of probability, but the rules are idiosyncratic with every show in itself. It does not need to conform to the rules laid out by other shows. Example: I find that The Expanse has done the artificial gravity concept the best way I have read/seen in sci-fi projects (it's the closest to the rules of Physics). But does that mean I will start exorcising other shows for not doing the same concept? No. So, I might not agree with some of the concepts I see here, but if they comply by the internal rules of the show - that's fine by me. I was a bit unsettled when I saw the bionic eyes for a moment - they had the blood vessels, so yeah, normal eyes. But then I started to read about all those new robots that are being built and lo and behold! - all of their eyes have painted blood vessels to look realistic like Ai-Da here.
Gang Gibeom is slowly adjusting to his new life, and by "adjusting" I mean: making spectacular mistakes and not telling anyone about the weird stuff. Actually, that might be my complain - no one is telling anyone about the dangerous things that are happening. Everyone just asks not to tell the rest about this-or-that. And such behavior always comes around to bite people in the ass. They really don't communicate here at all. Han Tae-ung is by nature a man of few words, so he dos not speak much, and only the cutie Gwangcheol seems like a normal human being here.
People are ruthless here and not shy of killing others. And it does not only applies to the main bad guy here, because Yewon is as bloodthirsty as he is and she has just started. If Deuk-gu didn't stop her, she'd have easily bludgeoned Minjun to death. With a frikkin' trumpet. So no, I actually don't have any excuses for her, so far. She agreed to marry Go Yongdeok, a ruthless monster barely acquitted of all the crimes he was accused of, because she wanted power. And now she has to share that power with Deuk-gu, a full-bloodied and trigger-happy psychopath.
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| The visuals here are also very, VERY good. |
One additional thing - it has really nice, dynamic soundtrack. Lots of fast-paced instrumentals remind me a bit of Kill It soundtrack, which I very much loved.
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| They are actually a perfect couple. |
I will continue, because even though I don't particularly enjoy revenge stories, I do enjoy sci-fi and tug-of-war shows. And women being as immoral and bad as men.
Sources:
