L13

Why is Sooji so damn rude to the only person who's nice to her all the time

I get what you're saying, but I do feel there was enough subtext to leave me satisfied. The contrast between Eun Siyeon's relationship with Prosecutor Gi, who was charming and cool and understood her well thanks to their shared history and values, and her relationship with Seo Minjae, whom she knew and liked less well but who obviously drew her in and resonated with her on a deeper emotional level, suggested the broad outlines of a delicious love triangle (and I don't like love triangles as a rule!). The movie ended with ESY and Prosecutor Gi on good terms and seemingly in a relationship, but ESY sought out SMJ to get his help with a new case (and maybe to recruit him for her new special team)... so we can choose to imagine that she'll end up making a choice between these two, if we want.

The premise sounds SO cool, I love it. Finally a mysterious genius badass female protagonist on a self-destructive quest for honor and revenge… and a rat ML trying to use her for his own advancement? Sign me the fuck up.

You asked, I answered. You don’t have to watch it.

It has four relationships with implied romantic potential (Muqing/the princess, Lucky/Miss Liu, Wang Jialuo/the spy, Zhuo Bufan/Miss Huo), and I can see maybe two of them being relevant to the plot (Muqing's tragic romance and the princess's shitty marriage will sway his loyalties at some point and the spy will probably steal information from WJL and betray his trust... these are also the two relationships I'm most invested in) and maybe two or three of them being consummated/getting a happy ending (I think Muqing or the princess will probably die, which is total bullshit IMO, and I can also see the show maybe fridging Sect Girl toward the end to give Zhuo Bufan character development, which would also suck even though she's an incredibly bland character).

The romance is pretty subtle and light, but I'm enjoying it.

Shovel’s child should be 45 by now. Neither Wang Jialuo nor Lucky looks old enough.

It's hard to believe Zhuo Bufan is a better swordsman than Muqing when MQ looks so much cooler when he fights.

I love Wang Jialuo because he's like a loser version of the Terminator.

You seem weird.

They were clearly asking about the drama; we can all look up the actors’ ages on our own.

Shows are usually categorized into multiple genres.

The Bok family mother is horrible. She deserves to get scammed and worse.

There's obviously going to be a romance between the leads, though?

I mean that sex is messy and things sometimes go wrong, so when a disabled 30-year-old virgin reacts poorly during an attempt to have sex and says something hurtful because she doesn't know how to navigate consent and communication, that's unpleasant, but it doesn't make her a demon. Chen Maidong was understandably upset, but he was able to understand her issues and accept her apology, which was totally reasonable.

It might have been "unforgivable" if Zhuang Jie had called him a rapist in front of other people, but their argument/misunderstanding happened and was resolved entirely in private. Get over it.

Oh please.

Yeah, dude, totally, what this melancholic exploration of loneliness, the fragility of human connection, the transience of life and the power of love really needed was a serial killer subplot, or at the very least 6 episodes of a crazy ex creating stupid misunderstandings between the leads.

lmao

AND ALSO… there was plenty of conflict to drive the plot? Granted, it was between the main leads because of their conflicting views on life and their psychological issues and not between different members of a chaebol family fighting for control over the family corporation, so you may have missed it, but it was there from beginning to end and it was super exciting and beautifully resolved.

I don’t think reacting poorly when someone tries to touch your prosthetic leg during your attempt to lose your virginity is best described as “stupid.” You may dislike Zhuang Jie for letting her insecurities about her disability and her inexperience with physical intimacy control her actions, but she didn’t do what she did because she’s a stupid person.

Episode 18 is available with subtitles on kiss*h, but they're machine-translated, so I'll wait for the real thing tomorrow.

I don't think my comment excuses ZJ or asks other people to forgive her, but at the same time some viewers' persistent grudge against her is bizarre. She hurt someone, felt remorse, apologized for it, and was forgiven. ZJ and CMD move on to the next stage of their relationship and so do we. The whole show is about the feelings of its protagonists, which are complex and evolve from episode to episode in response to their deepening connection. If you've started to dislike one of the main characters to the point of refusing to understand her, you're not going to get anything out of the remainder of the drama and may as well drop it now.

I was surprised to learn Zhuang Jie is still a virgin. I assumed she and Ji Tong had been in a sexual relationship in those 3 years she mentioned and the reason she called it one-sided/a non-relationship was that Ji Tong had been ashamed to date her in public and insisted on keeping it a secret. His clinginess certainly supported that conclusion IMO; it's rare for a slimeball like him to come all the way to a woman's hometown to beg her to take him back if they haven't even fucked yet!

But the fact she never had sex with anyone after that disastrous first attempt in university explains why ZJ reacted so poorly when CMD tried to do something she wasn't comfortable with in bed. A more experienced partner would have just stopped him and redirected his attention elsewhere or simply said "I'm not comfortable with you seeing my prosthesis yet," but ZJ panicked and physically threw him off.

It was a hurtful overreaction, but again, her lack of sexual experience explains it IMO. Physical intimacy is scary when you're not used to it and controlling the transition from flirting to kissing to actually having sex so that it doesn't happen too fast or get weird in the middle is not easy when you've never done it before.