1st Generation

## 1st Generation of Circles

The **1st Generation** is a group of fighters that follow the 0th generation. It is also known as the Generation of Circles or the Generation of War. It was the only generation in which fists and circles coexisted. This generation ended when James Lee beat the circles. Sometime later, James Lee would appear as one of Charles Choi's Ten Geniuses and would start the 2nd generation crews with the help of Charles along with the other nine geniuses.

## History

The **1st Generation** was first revealed by DG episode 359 when DG explained to Daniel the History of Fists. During this generation, Gapryong's followers began to fight each other for greed and power, and that struggle for power ended up with them recruiting high school students who were followers of the Pre-Generation. "The Fist" would rule over these groups of students known as "circles" and within those students, individuals would rise above them and become leaders known as "Kings". They tended to occupy larger areas such as a city and provinces in the countryside in order to run illegal businesses to make money.

The generation was full of violence and had no romance. "Kings" and "Circles" would always be in a constant struggle fighting over territory until the strongest member of this generation, James Lee would appear. He ended the circles by defeating the kings, mutilating several of the kings in the process. It's unknown how many Kings he did this to, as kings like Jichang did not lose a body part, there are only two confirmed victims. He took Taesoo Ma's right eye and contributed to the loss of Gongseob Ji's right leg. The fate of the fists that participated in the first generation is unknown but after this most people of the 1st Generation were scarred by him. Most of them would stay put in their own territory passing on the story of the Legend that ended the 1st Generation.

Most Kings would do the same, continuing their businesses in their own territories, other kings like, Gongseob Ji, would renounce their position and distance themselves from his past. After the flames of war died out, James Lee would become one of the ten genius and helped Charles Choi build a new era of the crews that would later become the 2nd Generation. He would also be manipulated by Charles Choi which ended in him killing Gapryong Kim before disappearing without a trace. Most of the 1st Generation would take in pupils from the 2nd Generation in order to pass on their training methods, they are still searching for James Lee to pay him back for what he did.

## Synthesis

**Generation 0.5:** This "generation" would exist after pre-generation/generation 0 ended and Gapryong Kim handed over most of the organization to his followers (apparently they were pre-generation as well). And as James Lee says, those followers were a problem. Since these would start wars out of greed and thus the first generation would emerge. It is unknown what this "generation" would be like, but it is possible that the teams continued to be called Fists and their leaders would be Bosses.

**Generation 1:** In this generation, Gapryong Kim's followers would recruit students for their power struggles. This way, the pre-generation and those students would fight together in those wars. The students who were associated with the pre-generation were called as the Circles, the leaders of these Circles were known as Kings. Possibly the leaders of the Fists (pre-generation/Gapryong Kim followers) who participated in the First Generation were still called as Bosses. James Lee would finish off the first generation by defeating the kings, as well as snatching a body part (either an eye or a leg).

**Conclusion:** It is not known what the fate of the fists was with the appearance of James Lee, because it is only mentioned how he defeated the circles to eliminate the links between the pre-generation and the first generation. You can only make theories and assumptions about what was the fate of the fists that participated in this generation.

## Theories

1- The simplest answer (the most boring and disappointing) is that the Fists chickened out when they saw how the Circles were defeated and crushed by James Lee.

2- James Lee also took care of the Fists, but it was simply not mentioned explicitly because it perhaps seemed unnecessary to say it at the time. I consider it one of the most probable theories or the most probable.

3- The current king of Seoul would defeat the Fists, in my opinion it is less likely than the two previous theories. I think it might be possible because he is very strong.

4- Daniel's second corps defeated the Fists. I consider it even less likely than the above theory (and by far) due to the fact that in those days he should only be a tween or teenager, plus no one recognized him.

## Hypothesis

1- One of the three unrevealed geniuses of Charles Choi was the one who defeated the Fists and their Bosses (to put Charles Choi's plan into action and then start the next generation).

2- One of the followers of Gapryong Kim defeated the Fists and their Chiefs, the reason would be the indignation or regret for what the other followers of Gapryong Kim caused.

3- The person who would defeat the Fists would be a member of the "great power". I think at some point they will show us what they are or were capable of doing.

4- A character that we do not know at all was the one who crushed the Fists. I consider it less likely than the previous hypotheses, but who knows.

## Members

* **Unnamed Current King of Seoul**
* **James Lee - One Man Circle**
* **Jichang Kwak - Chungcheong King, Former King of Seoul**
* **Taesoo Ma - Ansan King**
* **Gongseob Ji - Daegu King**
* **Seokdu Wang - Suwon King**
* **Na Chaegyeon - Incheon King**
* **Heo Doksu - Pyeongtaek King**
* **Go Jinyong - Seongnam King**
* **Yook Seongji - Cheongliang King**
* **Unnamed King of Busan**
* **Unnamed Original King of Chungcheong**
* **Sanghui-han and Yeong Cheol Kim**
* **Unknown members of the pre-generation**

## Similarities in Fighting Style

While all of the 1st generations fight in distinct styles, all of them run with a consistent theme of training one part of their body to reach its full potential. James Lee trained his legs to become so fast that no one could ever see his attacks, Jichang Kwak trained his hands and upper forearms to make his chops as sharp as blades, Taesoo Ma trained his left fist to become strong enough to crank even boulders, Gongseob Ji trained his torso to make his body be as durable as steel and Seokdu Wang trained his forehead to be able to kill people with just one headbutt.

## Nameless Kings

### Unnamed King of Seoul:

What we know thanks to James Lee is that this King is the son of Pre-Generation Legend/Gapryong Kim, therefore he is the older half-brother of Jake Kim. We also know that he defeated and usurped the former King of Seoul/White Snake of Seoul, that person was Jichang Kwak, although James Lee says that Jichang was crushed by the current King of Seoul so badly that we can take away from the fact that James Lee felt nothing but pity for Jichang so he wouldn't take anything away from him and Jichang lost his ego and was humble to the point that he locked those memories way until they were resurfaced by Daniel Park. With this we can get an idea of how strong he was, of the Kings we have seen so far, the King of Seoul is by far the strongest of all. It is unknown what he did before becoming King of that city, perhaps he dominated another site but it is only a guess. It is also known that what the King of Seoul wanted was related to the circumstances of the death of Gapryong Kim/Pre-Generation Legend. Another thing we know is that this King is approximately 7 years older than Jake, therefore he would be 26 years old, also that he inherited the bad side of Gapryong Kim and that he is the leader of a Mexican gang.

### Original King of Chungcheong:

We know of his existence thanks to a mention by James Lee, apparently he was defeated and usurped by Jichang, after this it is not known what happened to this King. The curious thing about him is that he dominated an entire province, in which there are several cities that could easily have other Kings, even with that problem he was able to dominate the entire place. It is unknown if in Lookism, Chungcheong is just one province OR if it is also divided in two like in real life. If he were the latter, it would mean that he dominated North and South Chungcheong, thus he would be known as the King of Chungcheong. From his level we only know that he is weaker than Jichang, so there is no way to calculate his strength, but he can/could/would be immensely powerful even to be stronger than Suwon, Seongnam and Pyeongtaek kings as he ruled over an area bigger than Seokdu, Pyeongtaek king and Seongnam king areas combined (now not assuming he is stronger than those three combined just that he ruled over an area larger), and it is also in the countryside and we know with Vin Jin that the only fun things to do in the country side is to fight.

## Some Speculations

### About the Kings

PTJ mentioned that the kings of the most important cities are the strongest. With this statement he gives us to understand that the kings of cities like Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu (this one we know), Ulsan, Gwangju, Daejeon and Sejong could be one of the strongest.

Interestingly, "the King of Sejong" could not exist during the first generation, since this city was founded in 2012. So there is the possibility that a member of the Second Generation was the top honcho of the place, the reason for this It's because Generation 2 was already starting at that time. It's also likely that the big shot of Sejong City was from "Generation" 1.5, since the notable members of Generation 2 weren't very strong at that time. If so, it would be a great opportunity to meet another important fighter of this "generation" besides Gun, Goo and Sinu.

This is just a guess, but the other Kings that might be close to the level of the ones mentioned above might be the Kings of the provinces. I won't count Jichang because he used to be King Seoul. The reason why he created that they are so skilled is due to the fact that they dominated an entire province despite the competition, since a province has multiple cities. Anyway, this is why the "King of Gyeonggi" may not exist, since in this province are the cities of Ansan, Suwon, Pyeongtaek, Seongnam and as we know these places already have their respective Kings. So definitely, not everyone can dominate an entire province.

As for the King of Seoul, he is obviously the strongest of all the Kings. After all, Seoul is the capital of South Korea so you couldn't expect less from him.

### About the future

About the Kings of the most important cities and the Kings of the provinces, it is possible that we will see them in the future. Either as a vital support for Allied or as enemies who side with Charles Choi. But most likely, Allied will be helped by most of the Kings to be able to face Charles and his powerful organization, he would undoubtedly have the law and the police on his side, we must not forget the organizations that the Geniuses have that they are on Charles's side. There is also the question about what Goo intends to do, he mentioned that he has his own team and wanted Big Daniel to join him but he rejected it. Regardless of what Goo decides, it would inevitably spark a huge war. It is unknown if this would kick off the Third Generation as members of the Second Generation, First Generation and Pre-Generation would all be involved in this battle in one way or another OR maybe it will still be the Second Generation. It is also likely that it is a "Generation" between the Second and Third.

Considering the fact that Charles/Elite is involved in the death of Gapryong Kim. There is a high chance that "The Great Power" will show up to help Charles Choi, because his worst Korean enemy was Gapryong Kim. If so, characters that were before the Pre-Generation could appear, although obviously they would be too old so perhaps they will not appear and instead their successors are the ones who are present throughout the conflict.

## Gallery

Ep. 359 - The circles of the 1st generationEp. 359 - James Lee looming over his enemiesKing of SeoulThe LegendChungcheong King, Former King of SeoulAnsan KingDaegu KingSuwon KingUnnamed King of PyeongtaekEp. 481 - Seongnam KingEp. 491 - Pyeongtaek King
## Trivia

* It is unknown who were the members of the pre-generation that recruited students for their power struggles.
* Every time James Lee fights a King, the background goes up in flames. This could simply be an effect to make the presence of James Lee more terrifying or the background site really went up in flames during the fight. The answer is unknown as an explanation has yet to be given.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Webtoon, Episode 359
2. ↑ Webtoon, Episode 368