In recent times, two of the highest-rated dramas have both been the sagas of dark heroes on the vengeful road to their own brands of justice. 'Vincenzo' stars Song Joong Ki in his banger of a small-screen comeback, and 'Taxi Driver' stars Lee Je Hoon, who is riding high on the enormous success of both 'Taxi Driver' and 'Move To Heaven.' Both the characters, those of Vincenzo Cassano and Kim Do Gi, are built on a dark past, ridden with trauma surrounding their mothers. While one suffers from abandonment issues, the other suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Both the characters have their own personal sense of justice, of what's right and what's wrong, as well as a common belief in "the ends justify the means," although not in the way that most would think. 

Spoiler Alert!

Vincenzo Cassano belongs to the Italian Mafia family. He's a Consigliere and enjoys limitless power and influence. At the same time, he also faces endless opposition and enmity. Kim Do Gi is a simple man undone by crime who meets the right person at the right time and gets initiated into Rainbow Taxi Company which disguises a darker business: that of revenge. Rainbow Taxi Company, too, seems to exercise unrestrained control over society, albeit discreetly. Go Eun, played by Pyo Ye Jin, is a genius hacker with the unabated ability to have cybersecurity at her fingertips. She's your typical fictional hacker who has no difficulty getting into any system whatsoever. 'Vincenzo' too has a genius hacker at their disposal with Kim Yoon Hye as Seo Mi Ri. The Rainbow Taxi Company employees are masters of disguise, and so are the Jipuragi/Geumga Plaza residents. Both our protagonists are always ten steps ahead of their opponents and have a village of people backing them up. Both deal with equally heinous criminals, but it is simply a fact that 'Taxi Driver' definitely hits different owing to its storyline having real-life imports. 'Vincenzo' gives us delayed gratification, whereas 'Taxi Driver' sweeps the villains clean every two episodes, with mostly his bare hands and a supercar. Kim Do Gi never has an "Inzaghi" moment. However, that might as well be because his character is written in as being naturally OP (overpowered, in video game terms), and he can simply wash an open stab wound with alcohol, staple himself up and proceed to wipe out some more bad guys.

Both Vincenzo and Kim Do Gi rarely experience moments of vulnerability, but their inherent humanness catches up to them at times. Kim Do Gi has triggers that render him helpless from his past trauma of seeing his mother murdered, and Vincenzo also slips up in a moment of unguarded powerlessness when the woman he so dearly loves has been shot. There's a larger concern with the general public and all things seemingly ordinary in 'Taxi Driver,' which allows for deeper audience engagement than 'Vincenzo.' Instead, 'Vincenzo' deals with what is presented as a larger evil. The casualties are considerably minimal in 'Taxi Driver,' whereas Vincenzo leaves behind a lot of collateral damage. However, at the end of it all, Vincenzo sticks to his gut of being a villain who gets rid of the scum of the earth by employing the cruelest possible methods of torture to dispense justice as he defines the term whereas, Kim Do Gi learns to find faith in law and order instead of complying with the privatization of penance (until episode 14 at least). 

Vincenzo may be the hero that we want, but Kim Do Gi is the hero that we need. As for who's darker, perhaps Vincenzo would fit the bill better with his sheer commitment to his core values, but if I had to choose a better vigilante, then Kim Do Gi wins. What about you? Who is the better dark hero?