Kimsamsoom

Oh sorry, I haven't watched that one. I did watch another of Kim Eun Sook's drama called The King Eternal Monarch, and I didn't enjoy that. I thought it was weird since I heard so many good things about Mr. Sunshine.

I enjoy commenting in a live airing drama comment section on MDL, so I normally watch new ones, and rarely go back to watch older ones.

Thanks :)

The people I block, do this one thing:

- Call me names like retarded, stupid, or other stuff. And thus are personal attacks. They even attack other posters, not necessarily me sometimes. And so I won't waste people whose idea of debate is to personally attack someone.

I have no problems with people disagreeing with me, or debating with me, in fact I welcome it.

It's the people who do nothing but attack me, or try to shame me for my views that I don't bother relating with.

And those are the ones on my block list. I have blocked a lot of people on this comment section due to the reason mentioned above.

I feel, if you have a point, you should be able to defend that point without encroaching into the realm of personal attacks.

If you are unable to NOT personally attack someone to defend a point, then your just another bully, and I have no time for that.

You can read all my post, and you won't see me attack anyone personally. I keep it mostly drama talk. But anyway, like I said, it doesn't bother me much, I just thought it deserved a mention :)

I'm not a victim, I have lots of people who have told me they enjoy my style of writing from this and many other drama comment sections I have been part of, and that is more than enough for me to keep on writing my views, regardless of how much of a minority I am in Snowdrop.

I write long post, because I like to write! Fighting!

OK, maybe.

I laugh at the people blocking me. I don't call them dumb, retarded, or even personally attack them. I don't even bash their idol Jisoo, I don't bring up the historical distortion issue. All I do is criticize weak plot points, bring up proper logical debate, and such.

Have people become so sensitive that they can't debate a proper argument, or they can't accept even the slightest bit of challenge or criticism? They would rather watch in blind faith and zealotry?

I don't mind to be honest. And this will be the only time I will rant about it. I just wanted to say my peace. I wish these people the best, but I will never understand their intentions.

Kind of sad, but not surprising. I will be glad when this drama is over, and I can comment in another more welcoming comment section that isn't half filled with people who want to live in wedded bliss. And people wonder why I am so sympathetic of Boon Ok, it's because of MDL posters like these who basically represent the Hye Roungs of the world.

To the people who have yet to block me, I respect you for toughing it out, and let's enjoy the rest of the drama together :)

Not quite.

The ruling party is known as a military government and a protectionist state. Eun Chang Su and Nam Tae il represent two conflicting views on how the hostage situation is to be used.

For Eun Chang Su - He wants to kill the spies after 10 days, but doesn't want to kill the hostages. His goal is to use the hostage situation to bury the news about the ruling parties connection to the death of Professor Han. Killing the spies afterward is just the cherry on the cake to prove that a ruling party government is necessary when so much NK terrorism is happening. He is trying to promote anti-communism subtlety.

For Nam Tae il - He wants to kill the spies and the hostage, because Nam Tae il is a man who is always about insurance. By having the spies blamed for killing the hostages, he is ensuring that anti-communism is prevalent in people's mind and they will demand the ruling party protect them with military style tactics. He wants to achieve anti-communism thoughts from the citizen in the most brutal way possible.

It has nothing to do with the pro-democracy movement being led by spies or such.

So just like Game of Thrones then.

She started as a character with a personality, naivety and purpose. They spent almost no time on her background, we don't even know how her mom died, or life with her grandma, her bond with her brother, nothing.

She ended up as a crying mess, that wanted to martyr herself at every turn. And when she's not crying, she's advancing the Male Leads redemption arc.

Take her out from the story, and the plot remains the same.

Even if Soo Ho was the main focus of the story, they should have just cut out ALL the hostages, and just leave young ro and the rest of the member of RM 207, that would give them plenty of time to develop Young Ro's story.

The remaining 5 episodes will most likely be cutesy fluffy stuff for an episode or two, followed by more serious episodes, and maybe a death or two.

I don't hold much hope in this writer fixing her writing gaffes.

It's common in kdrama I think. I notice it's not as bad in rom-coms. But it's very prevalent when the writer tries to mix genres.

Btw I wrote my analysis on boon ok, you can read it in discussion portion. ☺️

Eun Cheol spent quite a bit of time with Gyeok Chan, it is not like they have bond, Gyeok Chan has even been shown to have some concern for Eun Cheol. Sure, there are small snippets here and there of Soo Ho caring for him, but it's not like they are showing Gyeok Chan beating up Eun Cheol either. But the way he went from acting threating to the hostage, and then being best buddies with them is a really dizzying complete 180. He is never shown to question the situation at all. It is ONLY after Soo Ho has become a traitor did Eun Cheol start justifying his change in allegiances. When you have to verbally explain why you did something to the audience, you JUST know it wasn't explained well via the plot.

Plus Cheong Ya is not only a higher ranking officer, she literally SAVED his life. If not for her, he would have died. And who bandaged his head? Oh right Cheong Ya as well. So no moral dilemma at all? They didn't even show a scene where Eun Cheol listens to the message, no realization at all.

The characterization of Eun Cheol is very weak and hollow. And making such a character a pivotal part of the arc feels like lazy writing. From being just a background character, they suddenly made him central.

Does he have funny scenes? Sure, but so does Kang Moo, and at least Kang Moo's character progression kind of makes sense.

Since the next episode won't be out for a while. I want to do a quick review of the Characters so far with a little ranking system.

My Top 5 Best Characters in Snowdrop

1. Boon Ok - Boon Ok is Life is my new mantra. I am not familiar with this writer, but I can see that she and Kim Hye Yoon have good chemistry. Of all the characters in Snowdrop, she has probably the best writing associated with her character. She has a clearly defined background, flaws, rise, consistent characterization, climax, and path to failure. In many ways, she feels the most human and most relatable of all the characters. And unlike most of the other characters, the decisions she make, feels mostly logical and human. Although she has made questionable decisions, the acting of Kim Hye Yoon has really brought this character to life.

My Score: A+

2. Soo Ho - Although, admittedly I thought Jung Hae In's acting was severely lacking in the first few episodes, once the focus of the plot started honing onto him, his acting has improved tremendously. From eye acting, to micro expressions, I can see that Jung Hae In is truly one of South Korea's premier acting talent. He is able to masterfully portraying the emotions of Soo Ho to the audience. And although his character is not the best written one , that is not the actors fault and more the shoddy writing. Soo Ho's character has all the tools to be as complex as Boon Ok, but the anchor of being a ML has limited Jung Hae In, which is unfortunate as I feel Jung Hae In can do so much more with a character like Soo Ho. If they had focused more on Soo Ho's debt to his adopted father rather than some false indoctrination, it would be much better.

My Score: A

3. Ms. Pi - Initially I thought she had a very interesting character, and I though the acting of the actress was stellar. The writer dropped the ball in how she could have made Ms. Pi a stronger character. It almost felt like the writer was not sure how to juggle so many big personalities, she essentially neutered the potential of a character like Ms. Pi. Since the hostage situation, her character has lost a lot of her zest and appeal, and a lot of her depth. But if what I suspect is true, and Ms. Pi is only acting like this because of psychosis, then kudos to the writer for writing such a layered and nuanced character. It kind of hit me, when Ms. Pi rushed Boon Ok and pointed the gun at herself. I've only ever seen this kind of action from characters in movies/dramas who are reckless and have little regard for their lives due to some sort of guilt.

My Score: B+

4. Kang Moo - Honestly, I don't know what to do with this character, but Kang Moo's character, more than any other character, encapsulates all the satire the writer is trying to impart. In fact, she could have gotten rid of all the political workings outside the dorm, and just have Kang Moo continuously mock himself, and satire himself and the ANSP, and the point being made would have been much stronger. He reminds me so much of the King in Lin Miranda's "Hamilton". Just like almost every character, he could have been written much better, but he is one of the better characters out there, and a lot of it has to do with the actor's amazing comedic timing.

My Score: B

5. Cheong Ya - She gets a spot on this list simply because she had the guts to push through with what she said she would do. Her apparent torch holding for Soo Ho though, really drags down her character, especially when the justification feels fairly weak. Other than that one scene, her character has really not accomplished much, and is not really written that well. She has a few flash back scenes here and there that is suppose to imply character growth, but it just feel so weakly put together. But being Yoon In Na, she is on this list.

My Score: C

My Top Worst Characters in Snowdrop

1. Joy Luck Club - The gaggle of hens that make useless plans that revolve around 13 virgins are the most useless and annoyingly boring characters in Snowdrop. Omo Omo Omo!

My Score: F-

2. Three Stooges - The husbands of the Joy Luck Club, are only slightly better than their wives because Eun Chang Su has started to be a late bloomer and shown some interesting character development. Better late than never I guess.

My Score: F

3. Jang Hanna - The single most annoying female in the whole drama. I had high hopes for her after episode 1, but the toxic representation of women in law enforcement has really made me sour on her character in general. Everytime she shows up she asked about Kang Moo. I am not sure it's funny to satire women in such a toxic misrepresentation.

My Score: D

4. The Hostages - All of them, are very annoying, serve nothing to the plot, are way too many and distracting, and once again serve no use to the plot.

My Score: F-

5. Young Ro - This has nothing to do with Jisoo, and everything to do with the character. I felt that Young Ro as a character is interesting for a few scenes, but boring and stale in pretty much most of the scene. In fact, you can take out Young Ro from the hostage situation, and Soo Ho would still have approach his eventual redemption arc, she literally is replaceable by the useless hostages, that is how you know she is poorly written.

If you take away Soo Ho from the plot, the whole plot comes crashing down. I believe that Young Ro had the potential to be a strong and interesting character, there were many things that could have been done to give her importance in the plot, but the writing was not good enough to bring it out of her. If the writing had concentrated instead on the WHY she hid Soo Ho, or her love for her brother/father and etc.. Her character may have been more interesting, but instead we find out, the reason she was so hooked on Soo Ho is because Jung Hae In is hot? Yeah...

My Score: C, But she has the potential to be at least a B+ character with better writing.

Boon ok is life.

There is train that goes from SK to NK? I didn't know that.

JTBC character sheet I find has quite a few spoilers.

Same for Wikepedia.

I personally feel Soo Ho won't die and will just have a new name.

Khushi brings up a good point. Does the character sheet actually say, his previous name before Lim Ji Rok adopts him is Rim Tae San?

Maybe

I kind of wish the fried chicken scene was BEFORE Soo Ho turned traitor. Like Eun Cheol going from being a NK spy to suddenly siding with Soo Ho in the next scene is so incredibly jarring, and hard to believe. To give you an example, because Boon Ok's character was so well developed, even with limited screen time, her eventual siding with the NK's made absolute sense. Eun Cheol, who has spent most of his time with Gyeok Chan, had his life LITERALLY saved by Cheong Ya, so quickly switched allegiance in a span of seconds, no character development, nothing.

And then Eun Cheol declares "Soo Ho saved my life during training so I will follow him to the death!". Whenever I see a line like this in a kdrama, then I know the writer realize she didn't build up the scene well enough, and wanted to add this line to hastily patch up her plot hole.

Another example of this is Seo Dal Mi in Start Up telling Dosan "You've really changed a lot from the beginning". This is just lazy writing

Could you defend why Eun Cheol so easily betrayed Gyeok Chan? Sure, but it's from very weak evidence from the plot.

Cheong Ya's own character development and rationale hinges on a spatter of flashback scenes that date at least 8 years ago. If the writer had just kept the cast small, trimmed a lot of bloated plot lines, and instead, focus on the character development of it's main leads, the writing could have been so much better. But instead, the writer kept going outside the dorm, to show basically what amounts to the Three Stooges. It felt more like, the writer had to constantly remind us the viewers that "Hey, look at these incompetent people, it's suppose to be black comedy!"

Seems to be just one more evidence of poor writing that can be solved with a few additional pieces of dialogue to fix the issues. What I don't understand is why the writer wrote Boon Ok's character so well, but gave the FL very little substance? The FL throughout serves the same purpose any of the other hostages would have served. In fact, her only main purpose is to show SOo Ho that someone like him deserves love.

With 90 minute run time per episode, the writer has ZERO excuse not to develop her characters better. The insistence on showing the world outside the dorm takes too much time. And there are just way too many useless shenanigans in the dorm. With just three NK spies, delving deeper into the relationship of the three, would have made Soo Ho's eventual betrayal, much much stronger. And the reveal of the Mole, much much more powerful.

People say, oh don't judge Snowdrop that harshly, turn off logic, just enjoy the ride. Ok sure, that's fine, but keep in mind in doing so, Snowdrop just becomes another run of the mill Kdrama with a weak storytelling, that just so happens to have some of the hottest actors/actresses in the industry and one very popular Kpop star. It stands out more due to it's star power than actual strength of storytelling.

And yes, these plot weakness are actually very easy to fix.

P.S.

The writer could have done A LOT better to develop Young Ro's storyline. Seeing as the first few episodes of the drama were so Young Ro centric, it is sad to see the writer, essentially make Young Ro the quintessential plot device for our ML's redemption. Young Ro could have had a more active role in the plot. Her characterization just like many Kdrama became a weak ineffectual female lead, whose only purpose is to be the love interest of the ML, and to act touch and heroic a few odd times.

With a weak political plot, and little tension inside the dorm, save for a few scenes, the writer SHOULD have concentrated on creating a character driven plot instead.

Even Cheong Ya's feelings for Soo Ho are so weakly displayed that I find it VERY hard to believe she has any sort of feelings for him, or she is truly grateful for him saving her life.

Most likely sk ansp

Why is this hard to believe?

Soo hoo is doing everything in the show thus far for family.

Seems like double standard.

Yes I agree, but apparently feeling sorry for boon ok is taboo