| “ | I don't think I can pull it off this time. But then again... Who else can do it, if not me? |
” |
Warren Chae (채원석 Chae Won Seok) is a secondary character in Lookism. He is one of the few members left in Hostel B and Sally Park's boyfriend.
Appearance
Warren is tall young man, roughly the same height as Eli.
Warren possesses pale skin, black gelled hair, and a developed musculature. He has a rough appearance overall, and mainly wears black and white. In his middle school years, he had short hair cut close to his head.
Currently, Warren after joining the Workers, wears a formal suit with a golden badge with the symbol of the crew, in addition to now having a kind of formal topknot.
Personality
During his middle school years, Warren was shown to be very prideful, taking offense to anyone who insulted him or Max and Derrick. Warren has a strong moral compass and does not like stealing or being dishonest. He is considerate for those he has formed bonds with, keeping dedication to them by risking his life to protect his family. Even in minor situations, he will take great lengths to avoid stirring them any sort of trouble.
He has taken a huge crush towards Sally. Before realizing Sally had feelings for Eli, Warren would make unnecessary comments implying him and Sally doing couple things together. Afterwards, he now stays heedful and respectful that Sally does not reciprocate her feelings. He still continues to be protective of her, covering her eyes so she doesn't have to watch hurtful things, and going as far as fighting to defend her.
He enjoys calling himself, "Gangdong's Mighty Warren Chae," and has the habit of keeping a fight record. He naturally speaks in a matter with words omitted from his speech in inconvenient places, which has become an ongoing joke for characters to comment on, however he seems to have fixed this habit as of late.
History
Warren was placed into an orphanage after his father beat his mother to death, and is implied his father was taken to prison. It is noted that he came to the orphanage when he was 10, and has been watching over Max and Derek for 5 years (As of the Eli Jang Arc. He hated to be looked down and made fun of, and would recoil by getting into fights with the students.
Warren always had a crush on Sally Park, and was jealous of Eli Jang. He offered to stay in Sally's home to protect her from Eli, who he thought was dangerous. After some time, he grew closer to Eli and joined him in creating Hostel. When Eli left Hostel, Warren stayed behind for Sally Park, waiting for Eli to return.
Fighting Prowess
Warren is an experienced and accomplished fighter given his ability to have thousands of wins with only 4 defeats (those defeats coming from the other members of the original Hostel). Warren has shown to be powerful enough in his younger years to defeat the entire Back Door crew with help from Max and Derek and was even be praised by Gun.
When he first met Vasco, he was impressed by his incredible strength considering they were on are relatively equal level. Jerry Kwon also has high respect for Warren Chae because of his endurance and lack of skill. Early in his life, Warren possessed little in the way of a set style though understood the fundamentals of fighting making him a brawler. Despite this, Warren possesses a sense of honour and pride concerning fighting with opponents that fight unfairly such as Eli being a strong counter towards Warren. As a direct result of his continual exposure to street fights with no professional training, Warren Chae unintentionally adopted the fighting philosophy of Jeet Kune Do (JKD) (though many, including the author himself, refer to JKD as a style in addition to a philosophy). Warren Chae and JKD's philosophy mirror each other in that they espouse attacking the weakest areas of the human body with as much force as possible.
However, after his encounter with Manager Kim (whom stated Warren Chae mirrored himself to a near uncanny degree when he was younger), the old veteran offered Warren his expertise in JKD. As such, Warren now possesses not only his immense physical strength, speed, and fortitude on par with Jerry Kwon, but technical foundations in martial arts as a result of formal tuition.
As a result of his development, Warren Chae has stated that he would win a rematch with Jerry or Eli.
As of Episode 380 we learn that Warren's fighting skills have been corrected by SMK and he now has a foundation of CQC as well as his JKD proficiency
It is stated by Sinu Han that along with Eli Jang that Warren Chae has achieved Mastery. Even though both Eli and Warren have gotten a lot stronger and even took out a 1st gen king together they still are not on the same level as Sinu Han, as in their fight the only damage Sinu took was from a cheap shot from Mandeok Bang while Warren and Eli were both bloodied up and damaged, but Sinu was surprised by their endurance as they didn't fall yet even with the damage they took.
In the current arc It's shown that Warren developed his own "New CQC Style". While fighting Jerry Kwon who almost defeated Warren, Its shown that Warren decided to bring out his own CQC style. It is shown in the flashback that while training again with Manager Kim, Warren was able to make him kneel on his feet by using his New CQC ( which he developed by mixing his self taught JKD with the CQC). He used it deflect Jerry's full force punch and land a series of attacks on him to thus defeating him. The only drawback of this style is that it leaves him unable to fight anymore after using it as the style pushes Warren's body to it's utmost limit just like he was unable to move properly at the end of his fight with Jerry.
Even Manager Kim has praised that due to the not having a particular pattern this style would be difficult to be copied by other "Geniuses" (referring to Johan Seong) as he was able to copy Manager Kim's basic CQC.
Quotes
- "Nice to meet you, let me introduce myself. 1083 matches, 1079 wins, and 4 defeats. I'm Gangdong's Mighty, Warren Chae."[3]
- "Mister, we're no thugs like you. You know what Eli, I think he just looked down on us. We're Hostel. What are you gonna do now, mister?" [4]
- "A man never regrets anything. You're coming back like this, Eli Jang."[5]
- "...Alright, so you're rich. ...I guess you can afford dentures."[4]
- "Whew... I almost let my emotions take over my punches."[5][1]
Trivia
- Warren's unintentional adoption of Jeet Kune Do as his martial art mirrors JKD's founder, Bruce Lee. With most historians and experts agreeing that Lee begun the development of his style as a result of mainly street fights and his tutelage under Wing Chun (which itself is a martial art mainly known for its street fighting applications).
- Warren has the ability to walk silently as a result of SMK's training.
- Warren's speech impediment has been implied to be as a result of brain damage due to it being compounded after his fight with Eli Jang wherein, he faced great difficulty and eventually lost.
- His 4 defeats were against Derek and Max, Eli Jang, Jerry Kwon, and Gun Park.