Not for the faint hearted.

I’ve been holding off disclosing my true feelings regarding To My Star 2. This is probably because majority of the fandom are set on one opinion I don’t entirely agree with,. This is, that people are satisfied with both the ending and pace of the series.

I want to start off by saying that I enjoyed a lot of the aspects of season 2. However, I’ll remain firm on my belief that we can still enjoy things that are open for critique. Even though I’m happy with certain things about the ending, especially the level of softness/fluff we got in the last two episodes - their reconciliation seemed rushed considering we were put through unnecessary amount of heartache (watching only through Seojoon POV in the first 6 episodes). Therefore, my opinion on the pace of the series, as a whole, is nuanced.

At the beginning, some part of me was sure that the reason why Jiwoo behaved the way he did around Seojoon, and that his POV was purposely held off for so long, was because there was a huge secret he’d been keeping - that there was a solid reason behind his harsh words and actions. But revealing it too early would’ve disclosed too much.

However, after more clarity in episodes 7 & 8, we understood that there was a different reason for his sudden departure. Number one being the fact that both of them had conflicting personalities and different perspectives. And number two, Jiwoo left because he felt an enormous amount of loneliness around Seojoon during their relationship. It sent him on a self-imposed guilt trip, having put his ex-girlfriend through the same unpleasant feeling, and going down a destructive spiral of self-loathing and depression.

Now, disregarding my previous theory of “there must be an ulterior motive behind Jiwoo’s actions,” I was somewhat happy that the central focus for Jiwoo’s reasons, was simply (not so simply), the deterioration of his mental health instead. It was refreshing to see something like this be addressed in a BL series, having gone through my own mental health struggles in previous and recent years.

I understand that people struggling through poor mental health, sometimes have a compulsion to hurt and push away those who are the closest to them for illogical, and sometimes no particular reasons. I get this, having imposed some of that hurt on other people, myself. However, we shouldn’t stir too close to the idea that just because someone’s fighting a battle with their inner demons, their actions/words should be excused. There’s no excuse for cruelty. And, given the fact that there was no ulterior motive behind Jiwoo’s disappearance, I would’ve preferred the introduction of his POV a lot earlier for the sake of not building too much negativity around him.

Don’t get me wrong, I have liked both Seojoon and Jiwoo equally - even before they got together in season one, where we understood them as individuals first e.g. their personalities and quirks. TMS and TMS2 hits differently compared to other series, because it’s the first one where I’ve found a lot in common and empathise with both protagonists.

But in my opinion, we were in Seojoon’s POV for too long. So naturally: the hurt, frustration and overwhelming sadness he felt, wasn’t easy for some of us to let go, even after Jiwoo’s POV was revealed in small flashbacks and episodes 7 & 8. It wasn’t easy to let go of the fact that in every episode leading up to no. 7, Seojoon’s heart crushed a little on itself - especially after the ‘friends with benefits’ scenario was put forward and, more sadly, the point where he hit rock bottom and was willing to change everything about himself that bothered Jiwoo - in order to still be with him.

That’s not to say Jiwoo’s heart wasn’t breaking either. Up until episode 7, and ‘reading between the lines,’ his struggles were shown more subtly through his body language and exchanged looks, when he tried to deny his true feelings. His lack of communication/inability to express himself properly at the beginning of the series, was only a true and raw reflection of what most of us struggle with in real/daily life. So I applaud the director for addressing it. But he also had a whole year away from Seojoon to take a breather and figure things out (yeah, I know some people spend a lifetime doing this). However, with two weeks after the finale was released, I’ve yet to come across a complete and satisfactory explanation as to why Jiwoo was so horrible to Seojoon.

There were also some concerning things that I’m not happy with leaving hanging in the air i.e. the fact that Seojoon wasn’t able to eat and sleep properly when he was separated from Jiwoo, only for his eating and sleeping habits to get better after their reunion. I know this can be common in some people who find difficulty handling break ups (especially one like theirs). But it’s still alarming the extent of dependence he had on Jiwoo. And no, this shouldn’t be played off as something romantic like, “they can’t live without each other,” because this statement can be equally worrying as well. Couples should have a modicum of independence in their relationship as well. And of course this wasn’t addressed properly as well.

Some people in the fandom are completely satisfied with how things ended, and that’s ok. We’re all going to have subjective opinions regarding this, just as with fictional books. I’ve acknowledged that after their reconciliation in episode 9, it was evident that they both put more effort into making things better. Jiwoo was apologetic and concluded that there was no perfect person and, therefore, no perfect kind of love while striving to be more open about his true feelings. They both learned each other’s love language. He became more vocal about his affections towards Seojoon, while Seojoon became more frequent in his physical affections towards him. Where one made effort to visit their apartment in Seoul more often, the other visited the village more often. The little montage of them taking turns being the other’s ‘pillow,’ was a reflection of how they’d become capable of compromising with each other.

However, the way I would’ve had it if there was money in the budget, is to include everything above - but to extend the series by at least 14-16 episodes so it wasn’t crammed into two episodes. If the reconciliation was half way through (ep. 7/8), they could’ve had more time to heal before, or even after they got back together - considering how severely they were both effected by their first break up. In my opinion, this would’ve been a better way to address their mental health struggles and open discussions about it in real life as well.

Circling back to the fact that, in order to pull off a satisfactory ending, I believe Jiwoo’s POV should’ve been revealed early on, for the sake of more character development in himself and Seojoon. In saying all this, I know we all fuck up some times, especially in relationships. Life isn’t perfect, so the imperfectness of the way things are handled i.e. messy break ups, potential reconciliations and mental health struggles, should be reflected in the shows we watch as well. But it all comes down to how it’s done.

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