The K-drama The Glory is a 16-episode long series trending on Netflix with the 8 last episodes that came out March 10, 2023, with Netflix not confirming a season 2. The story uses a lot of real-life details from an incident that occurred in 2006 at an all-girls school in Cheongju, South Korea where three ninth-grade girls bullied their classmates for a period of time, including burning her skin with a curling wand.  After planning revenge for 18 years, Moon Doung-eun will start her play. The vengeance crafty series takes us along the path that Doung-eun takes after being bullied in high school by classmates and promising revenge. It shows us how she plotted revenge on her 5 classmates who caused her physical injuries that would not heal because she would continuously scratch and cause them to bleed. Some trigger warnings are graphic physical scenes, bullying, PTSD, and violence.

Throughout the first half, we mainly see Doung-eun’s side of the story, all her struggles in life while still plotting revenge. After the first time she was bullied she reported her bullies, but nothing happened to them because of the main bully’s family ties to the chief of police. The second half of the series which has recently come out shows how after everything she went through it is time for her revenge to start unfolding. She gets so close to her bullies who are now adults to slowly start revealing all their past bullying history. Doung-eun makes every bully lose everything they have become, leaving them alone just like how she felt 18 years ago, before serving them the final blow and leading to them getting punished in the right ways.

Not only does it follow the show, but it also shows us the cultural views of bullying in South Korea. According to a popular mukbanger and vlogger on YouTube named Stephanie Soo who reviewed the series and who is Korean herself, said this type of bullying is seen a lot. She explained that bullying to this extreme can be covered up by money and power just like it is in the show. These cases of bullying have made South Korea pass a law called The Special Act in School Violence Prevention, because many teens were dying of suicide due to bullying.

Around Campus students were asked if they would also go to this extreme or if they would wait this long.  “18 years is too long. I’m too hot-headed. I would have looked for revenge right away.” said student A (anonymous). “The show still seems very interesting, I might give it a watch, I can’t imagine having that much patience.” Another student, “I’m definitely not going to be so meticulous; I would just expose them with no remorse. I love the mystery and revenge seems so exciting.” said student B (anonymous).

So, students, what is your perfect revenge? Is it taking a path like Moon Doung-eun or is it more traditional to get it over with? To anyone seeking a binge worthy and mysterious series take a stab at it, it will definitely have you hooked. Don’t forget to keep your friends close but your enemies closer, that’s what Doung-eun did.