Last year Netflix shows like Squid Game and Hellbound taught us not
to sleep on Korean television – especially the dark stuff.
That’s why we were all so excited to sink our teeth into ‘All of Us Are Dead.”
No one is their best self during high school, or a zombie apocalypse. But when
people start showing their true colors, some are more flattering than others.
Hi, I’m _______ from WickedBinge and today
we’ll be ranking the students of Hyosan High from Good to Evil.
RULES
Before we start ranking, we need to lay down just a couple ground rules.
For the list we’ll be breaking students up into three tiers,
The Good, The Grey, and The Bad to Evil.
Of course we’ll be focusing on their pre-zombie actions where applicable,
though you’ll see a few notable exceptions made.
Finally, this should go without saying,
but there is a HUGE spoiler warning in effect. So carry on at your own risk.
First up we have ‘The Good’ tier. This is filled with characters who
show outstanding moral fortitude in the face of, well, zombies.
Winning the Gold Medal of Good is Class President Nam-ra.
She’s top of the class, so it should be no surprise that she
studied hard enough to come in top of our list as well.
Nam-ra is not a flawless character, by any means,
but we think she makes exceptional strides toward overcoming her weaknesses on the show.
When it starts out she is antisocial, self-involved,
and preoccupied with little more than meeting her mother’s absurd expectations.
She doesn’t offer to help out or seem concerned, even as the world begins crumbling around her.
It’s not just that she’s shy, either. When Su-hyeok tries to engage her in conversation,
she is just as resistant to socializing. She also seems to harbor some bitterness toward
the other students for not treating her as a true class president, despite not making
the effort to engage with them and admitting readily that her mother paid for her spot there.
By the end of the show, she’s brought the survivors closer
together. She opens up about why she was afraid to make friends,
and learns to accept each and every person stranded on the roof with her.
This is all an impressive amount of growth for a few days time, but we’re saving the best for last.
Whereas most students turn into monsters after being infected with the Jonas virus,
Nam-ra falls just short of being a superhero. She uses her “half-bie” powers for good to let
her friends know when the other zombies might be weakest and easiest to evade.
She also uses her strength to fight off the other walking dead that are attacking. All of this
happens while she is starving, and having to fight the urge to eat all her tasty, tasty classmates.
While the decision to stay in the ruins of Hyosan might be mostly about her own self-preservation,
she uses that time to clear out the rest of the
zombies who could pose a threat to society if allowed to live.
The Silver Medal of Good goes to ; Su-hyeok.
There are a few small complaints we could make about Su-hyeok,
one being his general disregard for On-jo’s feelings.
Overall, however, we think he does a great job of playing the hero without
ever crossing over into the “asshole jock” stereotype. As a matter of fact,
he’s often the one defending someone that the rest of the group sees as a liability.
He never balks at putting his life at risk for the group,
and goes above and beyond for his crush, Nam-ra, even once she’s been bitten.
Though we know he used to hang out with the bullies running the school,
he makes it clear that those days are behind him. He even stands up to his former
“friends” when he sees them continuing to be cruel.
The Bronze Medal of good is awarded to On-jo.
We’ll admit, she is slow on the uptake when it comes to the danger they’re in.
She also has a few well-justified meltdowns along the way. However,
On-jo ends up becoming exactly the kind of person you’d want to have around in a zombie emergency.
She’s decisive, caring, and knows what to do in a crisis.
While she doesn’t have Nam-ra’s booksmarts, she proves herself to be a good leader.
Her biggest downfall as a survivalist is how hard she takes the deaths of her friends and family.
While it does put the team at greater risk on a couple occasions, we do think it’s
justified from a moral perspective. Perhaps even enough to earn her points. It shows she cares.
Following her is Cheong-san.
It’s hard to dock him points for being a teenage boy.
There are obviously times where he doesn’t know how to handle his feelings,
let alone the feelings of a girl. As a result he can come across as uncaring or cold.
We can forgive all that, but it’s harder to forgive the pettiness that this starts between him
and Su-hyeok. Whether it’s cowardice or jealousy that compels him to leave his friend behind,
we may never know. But that’s hardly the last of the sparks between these two,
who spend much of the series butting heads.
He can also be rather hypocritical, especially when it comes to On-jo.
He won’t take the same comfort from her that he expects her to take from him.
He also doesn’t like to see or hear of her taking risks, something which he is also prone to do.
The last sacrifice he makes ends up costing him everything, and leading to the survival
of the entire group. The fact that he’s able to go about it in such a mature way,
leaving On-jo with a proper goodbye, says a lot about how much he’s grown as a character.
Next is Dae-su. Dae-su is such a wholesome member of the group.
To cast him solely in the role of comic relief would be to do him a disservice.
But it’s hard to deny that he’s often the most light-hearted of his friends.
Whether it’s suggesting they go to the bathroom out the window,
or singing a song to lift everyone’s spirits, most of the smiles of the show trace back to Dae-su.
All this, and he’s still brave.
He is never afraid or reluctant to put
his strength to the test in order to protect his friends.
Speaking of people who are just helpful,
the next slot goes to Min-Jae. He is an unsung hero of the show.
This member of the archery team is not only a good shot, but he’s loyal.
When his friend goes on a mission to save her brother he accompanies
her without second guessing her at every turn. He shows his constant trust in her,
and does his best to make sure that the people with them survive.
Next up is Joon-Seong “ Though he may have given a lot
of grief to his peers, he knew when the time was right to throw himself in front of the zombies to
save them. For this sacrifice alone, we feel justified in putting him in the ‘Good’ tier.
Following him is Joon-yeong. “ He makes the Good tier for an
act of self-sacrifice as well, albeit more begrudgingly. Though he blends into
the woodwork more than his peers for being quiet and reflective,
we’ve also seen he’s willing to take an active role in their survival.
When the time comes for him to sacrifice himself, he doesn’t hesitate.
Rounding out the tier is the show’s coolest character; Jang Ha-ri
While going back for family may be a common theme in the show,
it’s something we still believe Ha-ri should get credit for.
She’s also able to save a few of her peers with her bow and arrow along the way.
She doesn’t always seem to care if they follow her or stay safe,
but that’s part of what makes her so effective at what she does.
We get to see her soft side develop, too. By the end of the show she’s learned how to comfort
members of the group who are experiencing loss, even when they’re near-strangers.
We move now to The Grey tier. These are characters whose values faltered in favor of survival,
but didn’t fall entirely into depravity.
First to the tier is Hee-su Talk about rough luck;
this secretly pregnant teenager gives birth on the day that the zombie apocalypse hits.
She can’t even get help from the nurse, because the virus takes immediate priority.
We don’t entirely blame her for the instinct to leave the child. It’s clear that she didn’t have
the support system in place to help her take care of a baby, and she did try to leave it somewhere
it would be found and cared for, in all likelihood by someone more well-equipped to deal with it.
The plan was selfish, and heartbreaking, but we understand where she was coming from.
What keeps her from being a bad person, of course,
is that she goes back to pick up the baby when she realizes that the zombies are coming.
Once she gets bit, she also takes measures to protect the baby from herself, as well.
Following her is Hyo-ryeong. We’re now moving into characters that,
despite having a decent amount of screen time, were morally ambiguous.
They didn’t make the big sacrifices of their peers but they also didn't make terrible mistakes.
This is perhaps best exemplified by Hyo-ryeong.
We think her biggest outlying deed is when she admits to distrusting Gyeong-su about his bite.
She was in the wrong to distrust him,
but she owns up to it and does her best to address that flaw within herself.
We feel she does a lot in overcoming those
trust issues during the survival journey they undergo together.
Our next spot is tied up by I-sak and Gyeong-su
I-sak Gyeong-su
Both of these characters played similar roles in the show; supporting their friends.
Gyeong-su may have been more active in the group’s survival,
but I-sak was shown being morally supportive on more occasions.
In both instances, their deaths hit hard for the best friends that had to continue
on without them. Their impact and goodness was felt more in their absence, and we wish
they’d been given the same opportunities to develop and do good with the other survivors.
We move now to Wu-jin. He was kind, unobstructive, and helpful.
Though we think he could have been more grateful to his sister and her friends
for coming to save him, there is little to complain about with his character overall.
At the end of the day, he did his best. Despite only making the Grey tier,
we still have to feel like his best was plenty adequate.
Speaking of his sister’s friends, next up is Mi-jin.
She’s very fun to watch, but probably not your first choice of companion in an emergency.
Aside from being rough around the edges, she has very skewed priorities.
Though she is more than willing to complain about test-taking at every available opportunity,
her defining character trait seems to be a desire to go to college. And getting a smoke.
Still, she proves to be a good friend,
to the extent of even telling tall tales to boost Ha-ri’s confidence.
She also has an endearing way of crudely speaking truths,
and looking at the bright side of every morbid situation.
Rounding out the tier we have Ji-min. This girl has some trust issues. After
the time she’s had, we don’t exactly blame her. Still, it paints her in a less positive
light than some of her classmates who do more to overcome those fears.
Ji-min is the last and least accepting of Nam-ra, even when her half-bie powers prove useful.
She also ends up separated from the group because she chooses to flee,
rather than return for a fallen friend.
Keeping this in mind, we had to rank her below her classmates.
Even if her shortcomings seem warranted, given the situation.
And finally we reach the bad to evil. These are the characters
whose villainous actions had us reeling – and that’s before they were zombified.
Kicking off the tier, we have Eun-ji.
We’re a little surprised that this didn’t turn into a full-blown revenge subplot with Eun-ji.
She is the victim of merciless bullying while alive. She actually gets bit trying to
destroy the phone of her bully so that a naked video of her isn’t uploaded to the internet.
At that point, Eun-ji is already contemplating suicide.
It would have been a quick, relatively painless death had she followed through and jumped,
but she decided instead to try and spare her mother the pain of seeing her abuse at school.
It shows that even though she’s given up on herself, she’s still thinking about
the people in life she cares about, and the state she would be leaving them in.
We were sort of surprised that after she turns and is still shown to have her mental capacities,
that she didn’t actively seek out the people
who tormented her. It’s not to say that she doesn’t get any revenge.
The first victim she claims is a faculty member who victim-blamed her when she tried to get help.
It was sort of nice to see her step into a position of power,
and the show definitely missed an opportunity by not letting us get more zombie anti-hero content.
Her worst action, in our humble opinion, is not the murder,
but setting fire to the school. Since that fire did less damage to the school than
everything else going on inside, we were tempted to give her a pass on that too.
Following her is fellow victim Cheol-su. Eun-ji accuses Cheol-su of not having the
courage to live or die. That’s why we were so shocked when he found the
courage to leave his classmates for dead inside the school during his own rescue.
We know that he probably did this to honor Eun-ji’s wishes to see the whole school burn,
but it was dark.
It was one of the most surprising acts of cruelty in the show, and the injustice of
Cheol-su getting rescued after locking the others in the building physically hurt to watch.
After him is Kim Hyeong-Ju It’s actually easy to miss
just how cruel Hyeong-ju can be. Almost immediately in the show we’re tricked
into seeing her as a victim, because she’s being held captive by Mr. Lee.
But before she’s patient 0, she is a friend of the gang of bullies.
She’s on the roof when Jin-su turns, and is more concerned about his
beating splashing water on her than she is about the fact he’s being beaten.
That’s pretty cold.
But of course, even worse are the bullies themselves. First up is Chang-hoon.
He’s evil by association, though he takes the least active role in actually harming
his fellow students. We see him laugh at the torment inflicted by his friends.
Based on his attitude, and the company he keeps, we feel justified putting him this low.
Taking the Bronze Medal of Evil is his leader, Myeon-hwan.
Myeon-hwan is the head of the bullies in the show. He’s the one we see actually giving the
orders in the group. It’s under his reign that Mr. Lee’s son tries to commit suicide, and he still
seems to be in control when we’re watching the worst of the abuse come to Cheol-su and Eun-ji.
While he’s not in the show a lot, his cruelty sets up the system of
abuse that serves as a big chunk of the story’s dark foundation.
We hate to say it, but it was sort of satisfying to watch him get bullied to death by zombies.
Taking the Silver Medal of Evil is Na-yeong.
This girl is a piece of work.
Even before we bring the life or death aspect of her situation into play, Na-yeong is unpleasant.
She’s classist, she’s rude, she’s a gossip, and she’s quick to believe the worst in everyone.
We hear of her spreading rumors before we ever get to meet her. When she’s properly introduced to us,
it’s by berating another student. That feud continues into the survival portion of the
show when she brazenly calls him a ‘welfie.’ This is an offensive term used to describe
someone on welfare, and it proves just how low she’s willing to hit (with witnesses, no less.)
Then of course, there’s the fact that she murders him.
It’s one thing to kill a classmate who has turned into a zombie. It’s another thing
entirely to intentionally turn them into a zombie so that you don’t have to deal with them anymore.
Then she tries to play the victim, forcing Ms. Park to rescue her through self sacrifice.
Even when she knows her fellow classmates are starving and succumbing to dehydration in the room
just next to her, she locks them out of the supply closet rather than to help out.
We have to say, reluctantly, in her defense, that she does eventually die trying to make amends.
But even if the attempt to bring them food had worked,
we’re not sure that it would have made things right.
Finally, the Gold Medal of Evil goes to Gwi-nam.
No surprises here, our king of the bullies and zombies alike takes the win.
We’ve talked a lot about the problems that the bullies at the school cause.
Gwi-nam was personally responsible for a lot of that, and indirectly responsible for the rest.
He is the one ready to post a nude video of
Eun-ji before the zombies take over ruining everyone’s life.
When he becomes a half-bie, his first move is to mobilize what he considers to be his zombie army
to go after Cheong-san. And why does he want Cheong-san specifically?
Well, because he witnessed him murdering the Principal.
The fact that he’s willing to punish someone for witnessing his own evils says a lot about
his character. As does the fact he was willing to rally a zombie army behind him.
In the final showdown between him and Cheong-san, he even admits that killing him isn’t as much
fun as he thought it would be, but he’ll still stop at nothing to make it happen.
OUTRO
That’s been it! Our list of All of Us are Dead Students ranked from Good to Evil.
Who did you think was the best? The worst? Let us know in the comments below as well as what other
topics you’d like to see us cover. While you’re down there don’t forget to hit like and subscribe.
And as always, stay Wicked.