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its-chelisey-stuff · 4 years

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Was it love? Rant on the drama and *that* finale

Okay, so, one thing I'm glad of is that I didn't actually put so much time into this(I started it when half the drama was aired and watched it on my TV while I was doing something else, most of the time), nor was I too invested (despite what this ranting may led you to believe) but I did have my phone on my hands while watching the ending and I thought I was going to loose a brain cell unless I didn't turn my frustrations into something kinda productive, so I just wrote this down. 😂

The final conflict

First thing first: I didn't get the last minute drama. It was so unnecessary, but that can be said for half the choices this show decided to make. The whole thing that made DaeOh go away and hide is literally something that we, as viewers, discovered along the way. It was all huge misunderstanding where he wasn’t exactly innocent, but not completely guilty.

All of this because of Ryu Jin, basically. More than half of this story's conflict was because of him one way or another. In the past, because of his jealousy, in the present because his former ceo had the hots for him and since she "made him a star" she felt some sick possessiveness over him. Even at the end, after some time had passed, she was of the same mentality. *shudders*

Honesty between mother&daughter and an ignorant father

And seriously, why didn’t Ae jeong talk to her freaking daughter?? Why wouldn’t she tell the truth? Tell everything that happened 14 years ago? How many problems could have been fixed with that? The kid spent 12 eps stumbling around in darkness, thinking everyone but the real one was her father and making assumptions about the time she didn't even existed yet.

This story could have been a very bittersweet but healing tale of a man who was egocentric, selfish and felt wronged by everyone and everything, founding out he actually didn't know the full story, and have him realize he was just a mere mortal by knowing he had a daughter. They could have focused on building the relationship between the two. It would have been the redemption for DaeOh that was needed (not relinking his romance with a woman who didn't even bother to get an explanation from him, the man who impregnated her, and dissapeared for 14 years) and the thing Hanee so clearly needed and wanted, having a dad. (Oh, and her whole “I don’t need a dad, so be a good husband to my mom” attitude gave me a headache).

‘Strong’ female lead was actually just stubborn and resentful

I wouldn't have minded that Ae-jeong admitted she didn't know everything. In fact, she was very far from it. That she wasn't strong, independent woman, a hero. Of course raising a child alone is fucking hard, but the thing is that she didn't had to do it alone. Trying to contact Daeoh a couple more times wouldn't have done her any harm. I mean, fine, break up with the man, but the moment she decided to have her child she owed to her baby to at least try so she could have a dad! But she was proud and stubborn, and I cannot admire a woman like that. What a pity that this was my first drama watching Song JiHyo, but I think she did her best with what she was given.

Sigh I just think that is awful that the woman I thought of as amazing on ep 1, was actually a mirage, an illusion. Yeah, she was strong in a sense, but her story was nothing to admire.

The romance (if you can call it that)

Finally, that OTP which was awful from beginning to end (and I actually never saw much chemistry between the actors). For a moment there, I thought I could tolerate them, at least, but while Daeoh started to redeem himself in my eyes, the object of his affection, AeJeong, was just sinking lower and lower, getting less and less sympathy from me. I will never understand why the man he became, could still be in love with a woman like her.

Literally any other pairing on this show would've been much more interesting. Hell, even the kids, who were adorable to watch (and for some reason got married in the end, like, I like the idea but what was that ending?). The hallyu star and Asia's angel. Gangster dad and bar's unnie. You name it.

And in the end young hot teacher had nothing to do or add to the story beyond liking Ae-jeong, just because she was the only one who told him to get his shit together and have another dream after his injury in highschool ended his basketball career. The fuck?

What was lost

The potential. The potential this show had and was lost is how I'm gonna remember this drama. The potential in its characters, the potential on the relationships, the potential of a better backstory, the potential of a better story in general.

Also, how good, plot twisty, could've been if Ae jeong and DaeOh didn't end up together, because, as irl, fourteen years or misunderstandings and zero talking are actually too freaking much to overcome. Daeoh should have focused on having a relationship with his daughter, on winning her and just her. And Aejeong could have ended up alone, as the independent woman she loved being, or at least make it interesting and have her have a hot romance with the best character, Koo Pado. Man, Aejeong had the best chemistry with him and they just did nothing with it? I saw it from ep 1, it was fire. At least use his character better, make his time longer: he was the best character and I actually enjoyed his whole story and the relationship with his son was pure love.

THE POTENTIAL THIS SHOW HAD. AND WITH SUCH A WONDERFUL CAST. GONE TO WASTE. I just feel bad for everyone involved. Even for the brief cameo SF9 had, lmao. At least they barely showed Rowoon's face.

Conclusion

Thank God is over. Among all the dramas I've seen this year (and they aren't a lot but I've made some questionable choices that thank goodness didn’t backfire till now) this is the one I barely enjoyed and regret a bit okay a lot. It'd be a lie to say I never did like it, because somehow I managed to finish it. But I wish I could've enjoyed it more.

My best memory from this drama will be the delightful OST that has been stuck on my head for weeks. That and Koo Pado. And A-rin. (Dasom, sweetie, from He's psychometric to this? Choose better next time, honey). And all the discussions I had with @eclectifylady were a highlight. It was so fun to try and make sense of the story, because with every episode, it proved to be a mighty task hahaha. At least there was something good this drama gave me.

Also, in case it wasn't clear, and you haven't watched the drama and are thinking of doing it, don't.

Just watch something else.

#was it love?#did we love?#was it love #song jihyo #son ho jun #kim dasom #koo ja sung #song jong ho #kim min joon #kdrama #rant #review #ending

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takaraphoenix · 6 years

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Let’s talk about character death for a moment.

Because I’ve been thinking about One Piece all day long. And for me, personally, One Piece will always be king of character death.

But before we go into that, let me clarify some things about character death.

I’m not a fan of character death. I don’t want to see characters I love die. That being said, The Thing (show/movie/book/whatever) does not exist to please and make every viewer happy and feel fuzzy. Especially when it features heavy action elements, character death is kind of a very important element and tool.

Nowadays, character death is kind of... a joke.

No one stays dead anymore. When a character dies, the viewer very often isn’t even under the illusion that this character might be dead in the sense of “gone forever”, which death kind of should imply. Instead it’s more of a “Well, how/when are they going to bring them back?”.

In Shadowhunters, for example, Jace dies for a full three minutes of screen-time before being brought back from death. They could have milked this for some suspense and feelings by killing him off in a cliffhanger for the season - not EVERYBODY has read the books before watching the show, you know. You could have pretended that he stays dead by killing him off in the season finale and waiting with the “Oh, I’d like to have him back, please” for episode one of the next season, to keep the viewers on their toes as to how and when the character will be brought back.

Sebastian. Killed off, immediately summons his mom who promises to bring him back.

And even on the slim off-chance that a character is killed and actually stays dead - Jocelyn Fray - it is not really... handled.

She’s been dead for a little more than a month now. That is no time at all. Yet when Clary had the angel summoned, bringing back her mother and only good relative doesn’t even cross her mind. It’s not like Jocelyn’s death has been years ago and she is well-settled with never seeing her again. It’s only been a handful of weeks now. I find it highly unrealistic that she got over losing her mother that quickly.

Luke too. The supposed love of his life died a bit over a month ago but he’s already flirting up the next woman. Like. Where’s the grief-period...? I’m not saying he ought to wear black and mourn for the rest of his life, but... more than two months, maybe?? You spent twenty years loving this woman. Somehow, I feel like that should have a longer grief-period and a harder impact than chatting up a woman after not even two months.

Not to mention the part where the show just opted to completely ellipse the grief-sharing between father and daughter. Luke and Clary addressed Jocelyn’s death in passing.

And it was mainly just used to fuel a tiny bit of Alec angst - but really only a tiny bit because he literally completely stopped being guilty about it right after he tried to kill himself over it. And while the suicide attempt was mainly the demon, it still rooted from his deeply seated guilt for having killed Jocelyn. But after that, it was kind of just... done.

Jocelyn’s death was all in all completely horrendously handled.

And horrendously handled death is kind of what brought me to this topic, as I had just recently ranted about Kevin Can Wait and how they just fridged the female lead because they didn’t know how to further the plotline but also added a time-skip of a year to assure no grieving will happen and we can move on to the “fun part” again.

That’s the two big bad Hollywood ways of handling character death.

Either you avoid handling it by just... bringing the character back to life.

Or you avoid handling it by simply not having the characters grief and deal with the death.

Both of those are awful options.

Look at Marvel. Avengers was kind of a movie you walked into expecting no real major stakes - there was just NO WAY they would actually kill off an Avenger during the very first team-up movie.

But they killed off a secondary character very effectively.

And by Coulson not actually being a character anyone was close to, you got to avoid the grieving process. Yet still the movie made that death impactful, gave it meaning and an appropriate reaction.

...I am still intensely salty that they fucking retconned it out of existence by whatever the fuck they did to justify that TV show. Like. I genuinely don’t care for it and it absolutely ruins the rewatchability of the movie for me because now when Fury goes drama queen over Coulson’s death, I just shrug and go “Meh”, knowing full-well he is still alive.

Prior to the retconning bullshit, it was a really good and effective way of adding stakes and feelings.

And that is what character death should be.

It adds stakes to a situation. Knowing that your protagonists are not invincible. That something can actually happen to them. The “no one is safe”-principle.

It’s why I absolutely adore the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

It had stakes. I spent hours crying over the final book, because Rick Riordan put the effort into making you grow attached to characters like Ethan, Charles, Silena and Luke. You cared about them, their deaths were not throwaway lines, they were impactful on the reader, the story and the characters in the universe.

He gained a shit-ton of respect from me for that book. Genuinely.

Granted, he lost all that respect with the sequel-series where he did the literal opposite and just did not kill anyone. Oh, yeah, nameless, never-before-appeared characters in throwaway line-mentions, a failed comic-relief death for Octavian and the “No worries, we spent the whole entire fucking book setting up the Death Cure”-death of Leo. It was pathetic and insanely boring.

There was absolute emotional detachment toward the final battle, while in the original series, I could not put that book down reaching with bated breath as some of my favorite characters died or risked their lives respectively.

After Beckendorf blew up, when Silena sacrificed her life, all bets were off. I could not stop reading. I had to know. Had to know if Nico and Clarisse and Thalia and Percy would make it out alive of this series. What other twists would come. It was incredibly engaging, both plot-wise and emotional.

That is what character death should do. Make a situation feel real. Make it feel emotional.

It’s one of the many, many reasons why I love and always will love Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Oh yeah, sure, this show is like the OG sinner of “Oopsie daisy, brought back from the death”-protagonist and it was ridiculous on that behalf.

But even Buffy’s death had impact.

Dawn, who started stealing and acting up because she did not know how to deal with her feelings and her frustrations. The utter... loss.

Spike fucking a robot, because the woman he loved was gone. But also Spike working with the Scoobies, Spike being an anchor for Dawn and being there for Buffy’s orphaned sister.

The utter despair of Willow trying to bring Buffy back.

Literally the only plotline of an entire season is them dealing with Buffy’s death. Buffy included. It’s not just “Oops, dead - aaand we’re back online!”. There is grief, heartbreak, confusion, the... “What now?”.

Even as real consequences as how to pay the fucking rent with the “woman of the house” dead.

And it’s not even just this “We will literally dedicate a whole entire season to this character death and it will ACTUALLY work and be brilliant”.

The Body remains one of the best episodes in TV history to me, as it deals with the death of Buffy’s mother, because it is... mundane. It’s a normal, human death and it’s... normal, human griefing.

Or... even smaller things. Kendra. She was only in literally three episodes. She wasn’t a big character. Yet even seasons later, Buffy still had Kendra’s stake, the stake that meant so much to Kendra and you were reminded that Buffy is still thinking of this dead friend. It wasn’t just a one-off character who was shrugged off and discarded.

That’s how you should handle character death. That’s how you make it work.

And now back to where all of this started.

One Piece.

Because there is actually a third option available on the “Death doesn’t matter” scale, aside from bringing them back from the dead and just not having characters deal with the death.

Simply not killing anyone off to begin with.

It’s usually the anime go-to thing, but also typical for cartoons. Generally, the animated medium where violence is hilarious and did you see how this Normal Human just walked straight through a wall and should technically now be dead? Hahaha.

Yeah. That.

One Piece used to be one of those.

In fact, One Piece went out of its way to show you just how ridiculously many characters survive ridiculously deadly situations in the Impel Down arc. We were reunited with so many characters that I genuinely had thought had just died an off-screen death in conclusion to the prior battles.

And then my favorite character died.

Died and stayed dead.

In conclusion to a story-arc that literally reintroduced a handful of characters I thought had died, making me feel even surer that this all would be fine. That Luffy would be on time to save his brother’s life, that they would leave, together, reunited.

And then they killed Ace off. Actually, on-screen, fully. Dead.

I cried for months over this death. It was intensely impactful.

For one, due to the world-building so far that has set it up that no one really dies. All actual character deaths laid in the past - being shown in flashbacks. But no one ever actually died from a battle-wound. Crushed by an entire fucking building? Shrug it off, dude.

This... inversion of an “avoiding death”-trope can make a character death intensely effective, because it really does hit you out of left field then.

But it wasn’t just that.

Luffy’s reaction to it was so intense and real and deep and argh, I cried so much. So, so much. And I was so angry about this. Stopped watching/reading for a solid two years of grieving period for myself.

I’m not good when you kill off my favorite character.

And I gotta admit, I have never really managed to get back into it since Ace’s death. I think that’s less due to the death and more due to the time-skip. I didn’t like that at all.

But yeah, it was hella effective and well-written.

So, in overall conclusion, what I want is for them to stop with the cop-out deaths.

If you don’t have the balls to actually kill your characters off, then don’t fake it either, because it’s uncreative, uneffective, boring and annoying.

Kill them off or don’t, there can’t be an in-between, the in-between has become an overused trope at this point.

And when you kill them off, fucking deal with it and have your characters deal with it too.

#Character Death #Phoe's Random Show Rants #Writing

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