Weak Hero by SEOPASS ended a hot minute ago, concluding the boys saga and it’s central villain, Baek- Jin-A Donald Na.

But who was Donald Na? Was he really a villain? Could he and Gray Yeon have actually been friends in another lifetime? Continuing my tradition of seeing the best in terrible characters, here we are.

The Ace

When we’re first introduced to Donald (HBIC of the Union), he’s got a string of bad boys under his thumb and he beat THE Big Ben.

Ben whose fist is described as a sledgehammer that easily defeats everyone he encounters. In fact, we spend a good chunk of the story seeing just how strong Ben is compared to everyone else.

Ben’s strength is a threat to the Union and the castle Donald has built, because he’s unwilling to use his strength for Donald even after getting a beat down in Na Vs. Park Round 1 and nearly being crippled in the process. This gives us a frame of reference for Donald’s strength.

Similarly, Gray Yeon (the weak hero and MC of this tale) develops a reputation as the White Mamba, and also represents a threat to everything Donald has built thus far. Unlike Ben who fights using no thoughts just vibes, Gray uses his wits to assess a situation and choose a method that guarantees a KO. His intelligence too piques Donald’s interest – with Ben and Gray, the Union would be nigh unstoppable.

However, Brawn and Beauty Brains aren’t interested in joining, nor are they enough to defeat The Ace.

In the end, the only thing Donald can’t defeat is the very fate that created him (or Changhui Han depending on how you view the situation).

A Tragic Backstory

The reader doesn’t get a clear picture of who Donald is, nor what motivates him, until he’s RIP. This makes it easy to withhold sympathy, especially when his motivations nearly kill my boy, Eugene.

Donald is the opposite of Gray (and Ben). Having no friends, most of his goons dislike and fear him, or tolerate him because being in the Union is mutually beneficial. Occasionally, we get glimpses into Donald’s past…

But the full picture isn’t revealed until Donald’s six feet under, past any point of redemption, and the full picture is quite sad. An ill mother leaving him trapped with an abusive stepfather. Teachers who don’t care about anything but taking advantage of him, classmates who bully him. His mother’s eventual death causes him to snap, and understandably so. Donald behaves in a socially acceptable manner only to avoid stressing his mother With her gone, he has little reason to play nice anymore.

Subsequently, he gets revenge on the bullies who made his life miserable (deserved), and eventually launches a kudzu plot to merk his stepfather, who took his mother’s life insurance policy and vanished after she died.

That said, Donald isn’t the only character with a tragic past. He’s somewhat of a foil for Gray Yeon. Like Donald, at the story’s inception Gray has no friends and little desire to obtain any. Like Donald, Gray creates a life for himself through violence, enacting vengeance on those who wronged him and defending himself from bullies. All the while building emotional walls to keep others at a distance.

Unlike Donald though, Gray doesn’t stare into the abyss long enough for it to swallow him, likely in part due to their different upbringings. Eventually, Gray lets his walls down and allows Ben, Eugene, Go Go, Gerard, and fried chicken to become his genuine friends.

Gray isn’t born into violence. His intelligence and aloofness allows him to avoid it most of his life; he becomes violent only as a means to an end. So, when an opportunity presents itself to choose a different path, one where he trusts those around him, he takes it.

Donald never gets presented with such a path. From the start, he’s in an uphill battle that can only be won through violence, money, and power. The Union and all its wealth is formed through brute force. Violence is king and the strongest come out on top. But Donald doesn’t have a bullheaded Big Ben to continue inviting him to things, in part because Donald has removed himself from “normal” society and decided to build an empire instead of going to school, therefore isolating himself from anyone who may be able to show him a better path.

Donald is smart too and arrogant. The type of arrogance that leads one to believe they don’t need anyone or anything but themselves. Not unlike Gray, but with his strength this makes Donald indomitable. In fact, Donald’s unstoppability becomes his downfall.

After all, once you’ve reached Everest you can only go down from there. And down Donald must go, because life at the summit isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be.

A Castle Built On Sand

There’s a reason Jesus said, “be like a wise man who built his house on a rock… the rain fell and floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock… {but} a foolish man …built his house on the sand…the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew… against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Donald beats or bribes everyone into joining him. Consequently, the Union is a castle built on sand. One that many of its members flee from when given the chance (Miles Joo, Wolf, and Jimmy). Whereas Gray wins people over (Teddy Jin, Wolf) out of respect, Donald does so out of fear.

Building a sand castle might be faster than building one of stone, but it’s innately unstable. Thus, it doesn’t take much for Donald’s castle to crumble. Ironically, it’s not even violence that takes Donald down, but Eugene who isn’t a fighter at all.

Consequently, Donald must make a show of beating Eunjang, the final thorn in his side. None of his red shirts could beat Ben, or Gray, and he’s gotta stand on business because Donald’s men have no real allegiance to him beyond their fear of his strength, and the benefits being in the Union gives them. So, he must prove to them why they should keep following him: because he’s the strongest and they have no other choice.

In the final fight, things go according to Donald’s plan. His men wipe the floor with Eunjang. He goes head to head with Ben, and win. Then fights Gray, and wins. However, there’s no celebration; he promptly disbands the Union and bounces.

This is after Jake’s poignant monologue where he tells Kingsley Donald wants someone to stop him. Since the only people who could’ve stopped him didn’t (Ben and Gray), he’ll stop himself.

Realizing no one can actually stop him causes Donald to BSOD. While it’s possible eventually Gray or Ben would get to a place where they can beat him, they’re not there yet and Donald wants to be stopped now. He’s tired now, so he challenges the White Mamba to one, last desperate fight.

Was Donald really interested in fighting? Did he see how Gray and his bros were still happy despite losing because they were with one another and he longed for that sort of companionship? After all, Donald is the one wondering if he and Gray could’ve been friends.

Alas! Before anything can happen, Truck-kun hits Donald, ending his life.

Friends For Life (Or Not)

With Donald’s final breath, he thinks of Gray Yeon.

Gray is the only one who matches his intelligence, solving the S-tier question and tying him in the Olympiad (because let’s be for real, Ben wouldn’t have stood a chance against Donald without my boy’s help).

Could they have been friends if they’d met earlier? Donald would finally have someone who could beat him at something, someone who was his intellectual match. Someone who could stop him, and someone with drive. Both Gray and Donald become strong for similar reasons.

Sadly, we’ll never know because the very fate that led Donald down a path of violence, decided to kill him.

Until the very end, Donald was alone. Sending the Union away, injured and tired yet fighting Myles Joo alone. In the words of Orson Welles, [w]e’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.”

Donald never gets to experience that brief illusion of companionship except in a dream. A dream in which he imagines a different life. One on which his castle is not built on fear and violence, but on friendship, mutual respect, and love. One built of stone that will not crumble when things get tough.