Who is Hong Yeong-Ae in The Glory?
Hong Yeong-Ae assists and supports her daughter, a spoiled brat, in her acts of monstrosity and callous intimidation towards the less privileged while lacking some essential maternal instincts.
Park Yeon-Jin is the main antagonist who wants to destroy Moon Dong-Eun with all her might in The Glory.
While many other people have subjected Dong-Eun to unimaginable pain and misery, Yeon-Jin takes center stage while also serving as a perfect representation of the predatory defaults the rich operate by.
Park Yeon-Jin has money, lots of money. That money brings with it the power to get by on almost anything in the world. Park Yeon-Jin is helped to avoid guilt, let alone charges, for the murders she committed. And it’s her mother, Hong Yeong-Ae, who makes it all possible.
A rich accomplice
Park Yeon-Jin is a menace to humanity with the inhumane bullying she inflicts on disadvantaged students at her school. She treats them like her toys and channels all of their insecurities and flaws to torture her victims.
She bullies her victims with her group of friends made up of privileged classmates and less privileged comrades who are willing to do anything for their wealthy friends as long as it gives them the benefits of a wealthy society.
Yeon-Jin takes the bullying even further, burning the victims with irons and hair straighteners. However, when the victim dares to resist, she either kills her or fails her.
However, Yeon-Jin’s mother, Hong Yeong-Ae, always intervenes and uses all her money and resources to save her daughter. Even during her most outrageous acts, Yeong-Ae is only disappointed that her daughter can’t take care of the poor victims by herself and hangs out with a few friends of hers who aren’t as privileged as her.
A superstitious killer
Hong Yeong-Ae is terribly superstitious and often visits her tribe shaman, who gives her all his pious predictions. Yeong-Ae is also a killer.
When Hyeon-Nam’s husband, Lee Seok-Jae, starts blackmailing her, she visits the shaman she spent so much money on for so many years and asks him about the predictions of the man who threatens to reveal the truth about to reveal the murders of her daughter.
She then hatches a plan and enlists the help of her shaman to get rid of Lee Seok-Jae and gives him 1 billion won in return. She lures Seok-Jae onto a relatively remote highway, runs him over and kills him. She then tries to pass off the murder as manslaughter and includes Shin Yeong-Jun in her plan since a witness only helps to prove the manslaughter.
Least maternal
Hong Yeong-Ae has always used his connections to get Yeon-Jin out of trouble, but by the end of The Glory it becomes clear that much of Yeong-Ae’s help to his daughter isn’t just a necessity so that the possible inconvenience does her not hurt.
However, when the consequences are far too great and threaten to hit her, she cannot simply follow her maternal instinct and risk everything for her daughter. When Dong-Eun asks her to give her her daughter’s name tag, she pretends it is important evidence against Yeon-Jin.
She asks him to return this evidence to her and she will not prosecute her for Lee Seok-Jae’s murder. Yeong-Ae gives her the badge, but Dong-Eun tells her it’s not necessary proof when Yeon-Jin witnesses her mother just turned her back on her – all according to plan.
At the end of The Glory, Dong-Eun’s tip helps the police figure out that Hong Yeonh-Ae’s manslaughter is actually a murderer, and she ends up being arrested and jailed for it.
