lilili

Thank for sharing your perspective. I have had some similar life experiences and I understand what you're saying. The problem I had with Ray is that he was never held accountable for his behavior, not within the universe of the drama and not by the fans.

Ray's behavior in the pool scene was incredibly toxic and manipulative. He never thought about how it might hurt Sand or even Boeing who honestly did nothing wrong except try to get back together with his ex. Ray also didn't change much over the course of the drama. He stopped drinking but as I unfortunately know from experience. there's something called being a dry drunk, where you're not using but your behavior is still selfish and harmful. His behavior toward Sand stayed emotionally manipulative and borderline abusive to the end but it was framed as romantic by the drama.

The fans kept making excuses for Ray's character because they love Khaotung (valid because he's a fantastic actor), they love the ship (valid because First & Khao have amazing chemistry) or they romanticize trauma (😬). Having a trauma history doesn't let you off the hook for your treatment of other people. In fact, holding people accountable is an act of love for the person who is using/acting out because it's only when they suffer consequences that they have the incentive to change their behavior. Tbh I was kind of freaked out seeing clearly very young people describe Ray's behavior as romantic when irl that kind of controlling/manipulative behavior is a huge red flag and a danger to anyone who's in a relationship with that kind of person.

Almost everyone deserves love. But they don't deserve endless chances with no consequences. It bothered me that Jojo didn't make that clearer in the drama because (imo) Khao is a fan favorite and he didn't want to piss people off.

They needed an excuse for Mond to go from never kissing a man to kissing all of the men

I hated what Ray did in the pool. It was toxic and manipulative and I don't really feel like he changed much except he stopped drinking in the end.

She wasn't toxic or mean, she was lonely, traumatized, burned out and depressed. Not a red flag but a fragile person who needed a lot of love and care.

He's an awkward dork who's clearly already crushing on the FL, I'm not sure why people are saying he's playing a cold jerk.

I think there may be some significance to what happened because we're seeing flashbacks of everyone in the Joseon era, like maybe it wasn't just a drunken accident that she kissed the second male lead

Wow, they really screwed both actors with those cuts. That's a shame.

I didn't realize they cut his scenes. I saw the interview JoJo said he didn't expect people to hate Top so much. He really did Force dirty.

The only reason people hate Top and love Ray is because Khaotung is a much better actor than Force. Because objectively speaking Ray has treated Sand far worse than Top has treated Mew.

Having said that, I hope Ray's breakthrough with the therapist translates into real changes in how he treats Sand. We only have two episodes left so I feel like it's going to be rushed and Ray's problems are so serious that it doesn't feel like enough time to deal with them properly.

I kind of hate that Boeing was introduced so late because he feels like a plot contrivance to keep Top and Mew apart longer and I'm reaching the point of being like just go your separate ways, you guys are too immature to be together.

I asked myself the same thing because I normally don't like school dramas or fluff dramas but this one charmed the hell out of me. For me it's two things: the actors are adorable and charming and the main romance is sweet and healthy. They help each other become better people. The FL's ride or die love for the ML helps him to gradually warm up and become happier and more expressive by the end of the drama without ever losing his natural reserve. And he's equally devoted to her and cheers her on as she pursues her dreams. There's nothing else to the drama but sometimes you don't need a lot of complications to enjoy a story.

It's a very happy ending!

I loved the drama but I agree with everything you said about the wife. She was not treated well by Dong Hoon and she had legitimate reasons to be deeply unhappy in their marriage. She shouldn't have cheated but she's not evil, just someone who took a wrong turn dealing with a bad situation. I don't think the show demonizes her though. The oldest brother apologizes to her for failing to be the breadwinner and putting stress on her marriage and the brothers don't hate her for cheating when they find out about it. I thought how it all played out was very interesting. Hope the character is living a good life in the US if she can't be happy living with her husband.

I see people complaining about the 8.3 rating but I think that's about right even though I really loved most of the drama. The last episode was not good, it left way too many plot points dangling and wasted time on dumb comedy bits with the talk show and the prison scenes (as compared with the genius laugh out loud comedy we got in the first half of the drama). I loved the performances and chemistry between the leads but the ending was a huge disappointment.

I loved most of it but hated the last episode, I think 8.3 makes sense. Plus it's a weird little show, I can see a lot of people being super confused by the combo of zany comedy-disturbing thriller

No, the show never tells us 😭

I also loved how the ML took care of her during her grandfather's funeral. He made all the arrangements and he was the only person who could persuade her to eat.

Her complexion is incredible, shoutout to her dermatologist

I agree with both of you. The biggest sin for me is we never came back around to the deaths of Ye Bun's mother and grandfather after all the agony she and us as the audience went through when that was unraveling

That drove me nuts!

Yes but it's much later, there's still a lot of comedy all the way to ep 10 at least