Just wanna mention that Heartstopper is also running on seasons and not completing its story in just one season:
Season 1 release date: 22 April 2022 Season 2 release date: 3 August 2023 Season 3 release date: 3 October 2024 (next week)
As you can see, between each seasons is a gap of 1 year and a few months. Slight difference being Heartstopper releasing all of its season episodes all at once (and not two episodes per week like The On1y One)
If Heartstopper, which was based on a popular webtoon novel is running in this manner, I don't see why we can't be patient waiting for Season 2 of The On1y One, even if it takes one year for the next season to come.
Good news is, the story in Season 1 ended exactly halfway through the whole novel. Therefore, we may not need Season 3 to complete everything! :D
I love how you listed down all the possibilities very accurately. I think the current version of ending things…
Thank you for the affirmation - I just wanted to point this out to show that no matter what, not everyone will be happy by what the director did, with the pacing, story, choice of actors, etc.
Sometimes we have to manage our own expectations too.
Looking forward to S2 with even better story and experience than S1! But as I said - donāt want to over-expect too š
First of all, before I share more of my thought, I would start by saying that if you are frustrated by the ending, it is alright for us to feel in such a way. After all, this series and its story, its characters and the portrayals by the actors are perceived differently by different people.
Let me start by saying that there is no perfect cut that will satisfy everyone - there will be bound to be people who are dissatisfied wherever the story is cut at for Season 2:
1. Season 1 ends the way it is - at the class separation, some unhappy because they donāt get to see the confession and kiss
2. Season 1 ends with the confession and kiss - happy ending in a sense, but story still not complete. Some may find it good enough and not interested to watch further as no cliffhanger to lead to Season 2
3. Season 1 ends later on at the separation of Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang by the family - then it became a tragic story, that will hurt some people who dislike sad endings (but again, it is eventually happy ending in the end)
4. No 2 and 3 above requires the pacing to be sped up, or skip some of the important parts of the story - then some will say why those parts are skipped, and become unhappy
5. Same as above, if the director, not confident of possibility of season 2 happening chose to squeeze everything into 12 episodes, then there will be those unhappy as the story seems rushed, or details cut out.
These are just some of the things I am pondering upon - as you see, no matter how, there will be those bound to be unhappy, no matter what scenario it may be.
What we can do now is to show the story of the rest of the novel to those who havenāt read it yet, or at least help point out that the story and all its upcoming drama is indeed worth waiting for in Season 2.
End of the day - there is no perfect series. There is no perfect story and there is no perfect director. Similarly, as watchers and viewers, we are not perfect too.
I liked that is wasn't a 'good' ending. It makes my hopes for a 2nd season that much higher! Now back to re-watching…
If the ending is good, then people can also treat it as a finished story despite the whole story from novel havenāt been told yet - then they may not be rooting for Season 2.
People in this comment section complaining about the season finale proves exactly what is wrong with the "bl"…
Exactly - this story is very wholesome and touched a lot of important issues, and I am happy to see how every characters even the side ones have development and are truly organic part of the story instead of mere bystanders and props.
It is about managing our expectations, and given that a second season is already planned from the beginning, it is to be expected that the series end in this way.
From my perspective, it may be disappointing for quite a few of us who expected to see certain events and developments from the story - but since the director has already announced quite a few episodes ago that they are heading to a second seasonā¦
This is the perfect cliffhanger to end season 1, as many of us have also known the novel story, and we will then look forward to season 2 very much because it is indeed an unfinished story, and it was planned as such.
Of course, I also personally prefer to see the confession or kiss scene between Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang, but I am glad they chose to keep to the pacing of the story and not rush it simply because itās the final episode of Season 1.
The director appeared in a podcast where he said āDirector of The On1y One said in a podcast that in the novel…
10 years is not too bad. They are still only 27 then. That's still young by every modern standards today. And as prefigured by the broken mirror story at the start of EP 11, it foreshadows their reunion and them living happily ever after. :D
At least compared to Director's other work, Your Name Engraved Herein, where the reunion happens only after 30 years, when the main characters are already in their late 40s, and worse still one of them was already married (but divorced) and had a child.
But s2 is not confirmed and even it it will happen it will take time....It would've been better if they would've…
As I mentioned, there is no guarantee that it will be successful, and this is not the first time a Taiwanese BL has sequel (second season), so it is kind of expected.
But s2 is not confirmed and even it it will happen it will take time....It would've been better if they would've…
The director and team does not want to risk committing so much resources into this project in case it fails considering that the bulk of the fans might be from Mainland China (due to the novel), and since this series is banned there, they need to ātest the waterā first by maybe producing half of the story.
At this point, it is very clear that the director and production team has already planned for more than one season from the beginning, but they filmed part of the series first to gauge success and acceptance in case the series is not successful before committing to a second season.
(To me, this is already obvious since as early as EP 4)
And I would say that I am glad the producer does this rather than forcing to squeeze everything into twelve episodes and removing a lot of important moments and details from the story.
Oh, and just realised after posting that this is the 5000th comment!
I really like the way the director showed the flashbacks so far, and the ones in EP 10 are the best so far. It was very well-done and at the right moments.
And we can see here that Jiang Tian does indeed struggle with the issue mentioned in the novel (although it wasn't made so explicit here in the series). But this is where it shows how love eventually trumps over whatever past hurt and trauma that he might have experienced from the past.
1 
Season 1 release date: 22 April 2022
Season 2 release date: 3 August 2023
Season 3 release date: 3 October 2024 (next week)
As you can see, between each seasons is a gap of 1 year and a few months. Slight difference being Heartstopper releasing all of its season episodes all at once (and not two episodes per week like The On1y One)
If Heartstopper, which was based on a popular webtoon novel is running in this manner, I don't see why we can't be patient waiting for Season 2 of The On1y One, even if it takes one year for the next season to come.
Good news is, the story in Season 1 ended exactly halfway through the whole novel. Therefore, we may not need Season 3 to complete everything! :D
Sometimes we have to manage our own expectations too.
Looking forward to S2 with even better story and experience than S1! But as I said - donāt want to over-expect too š
Let me start by saying that there is no perfect cut that will satisfy everyone - there will be bound to be people who are dissatisfied wherever the story is cut at for Season 2:
1. Season 1 ends the way it is - at the class separation, some unhappy because they donāt get to see the confession and kiss
2. Season 1 ends with the confession and kiss - happy ending in a sense, but story still not complete. Some may find it good enough and not interested to watch further as no cliffhanger to lead to Season 2
3. Season 1 ends later on at the separation of Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang by the family - then it became a tragic story, that will hurt some people who dislike sad endings (but again, it is eventually happy ending in the end)
4. No 2 and 3 above requires the pacing to be sped up, or skip some of the important parts of the story - then some will say why those parts are skipped, and become unhappy
5. Same as above, if the director, not confident of possibility of season 2 happening chose to squeeze everything into 12 episodes, then there will be those unhappy as the story seems rushed, or details cut out.
These are just some of the things I am pondering upon - as you see, no matter how, there will be those bound to be unhappy, no matter what scenario it may be.
What we can do now is to show the story of the rest of the novel to those who havenāt read it yet, or at least help point out that the story and all its upcoming drama is indeed worth waiting for in Season 2.
End of the day - there is no perfect series. There is no perfect story and there is no perfect director. Similarly, as watchers and viewers, we are not perfect too.
No perfect cut will satisfy everyone.
It is about managing our expectations, and given that a second season is already planned from the beginning, it is to be expected that the series end in this way.
This is the perfect cliffhanger to end season 1, as many of us have also known the novel story, and we will then look forward to season 2 very much because it is indeed an unfinished story, and it was planned as such.
Of course, I also personally prefer to see the confession or kiss scene between Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang, but I am glad they chose to keep to the pacing of the story and not rush it simply because itās the final episode of Season 1.
What makes me happy is knowing that there is a continuation of this story in Season 2, and I really donāt mind to wait for it.
At least compared to Director's other work, Your Name Engraved Herein, where the reunion happens only after 30 years, when the main characters are already in their late 40s, and worse still one of them was already married (but divorced) and had a child.
(To me, this is already obvious since as early as EP 4)
And I would say that I am glad the producer does this rather than forcing to squeeze everything into twelve episodes and removing a lot of important moments and details from the story.
Oh, and just realised after posting that this is the 5000th comment!
And we can see here that Jiang Tian does indeed struggle with the issue mentioned in the novel (although it wasn't made so explicit here in the series). But this is where it shows how love eventually trumps over whatever past hurt and trauma that he might have experienced from the past.
Looking forward to EP 11 and 12 next week!
(5000 comments soon!)
I really enjoyed EP 10 tonight! It was really good :D