Dabosil

Thanks for the book explanations! I think 1. makes sense and 2. helps flesh out the journey. I get that they had to squash time fin the drama, though it still felt rushed. I also know about the second 2. (I think you meant 3.), that she was gone for several months I understand, thought the episode's pacing was a huge leap compared to prior ones so it was jarring.

Most importantly, thank you for the last explanation, that explains it much better than the show did, I wish they had incorporated some sort of dialogue from him explaining his abilities (or though narrations like they do in the show).

Yeah, I completely get what you're saying. In xianxia, things are different, which is why I said it depends on what genre. It still feels rushed though, but if they can't help it they can't help it. I also wasn't comparing it to Minglan, that bottom half was just me pointing out the different types of things different genres focus on. And yep, getting fish would be unnecessary, but maybe they just don't need to be eating fish in that hut. I also think the bowl and pestle didn't do anything at all lol, like the berry is useful but she could have just come back with her hand filled with a few berries and that would work well too! So yes, it's unnecessary but that also means that that detail is unnecessary. Afterall, what she was mashing didn't end up being important to the scene.

I get what you're saying, but let's not act like all directors/writers/editors do amazing work or have everything under control. I'm liking the drama but it's also fair on the audience's side to point out flaws. It can be understandable AND still a flaw. You're right, Harry Potter would be 80 movies or whatever and yes, not everything was covered. It doesn't mean the movies are bad. Just like how this drama doesn't have to be bad even if there are plotholes, but there are different ways to go around it worth considering and opinions.

I think it's true some people would complain about filler episodes, but also true that some people wouldn't mind, so I wouldn't generalize different people.

Idk anything about the novel so I can't say much about it, as I'm watching without knowing where this is going. There will be novel fans who want this and this, and that's fine to consider, and also people like me who will gauge this based on how it seems from a unknowing perspective. You said already some complaints, which can be expected; I know MDL has a bunch of stuff with hate spammers and megafans, but I can't see why other opinions aren't welcome.

I do love this drama, but I feel like the last two episodes had a bunch of plotholes (and I'm not even the type of person to easily spot them)

1. If ML's tribe members really have the ability to control different animals, even if it's only down to crows/ravens, mice, insects etc., then they would definitely have ben the established rulers long before any of this, and not a lowly tribe, unless it's only ML and ML's bodyguard. For example, in Game of Thrones, the Targaryen family have an established regime for thousands of years because of their bloodline's ability to control dragons. Yes, dragons are much more extreme but in E9 the King legit got killed through 90% the doing of rats.

2. This is CDramas in general, but the story is usually blind to direction. In one episode alone, FL is walking by the river towards the Jing Kingdom and manages to find ML (as in like a billion other fantasy historicals), FL goes to find help for ML's wounds (idk what that did though) and comes back with a BOWL and PESTLE (I guess the berries make sense), FL is trudging ML along and they find an empty wooden house in the forest (always in fantasy historicals, also how did she get fish, based on her background it doesn't seem like she would know how to catch fish barehanded). Also in E10 they just say where they want to go and then somehow they walk some unspecified distance and find the 'mystical place'. The seven-tailed fox demon and the FL walked into the desert (and it seems like a long walk), and they're all fine. Also, the common trope of everyone going through disastrous circumstances and looking great. I mean, y'all just drowned with heavy metal and dangly bits all over your head,.

3. Also just the crazy succession of ML to the throne, which is the fastest I have ever seen, damn. But I will let this go because I get the reason. Still, while I was watching I was thinking. yes, everyone would like to be the ruler, but people severely underestimate the amount of WORK you have to do as a king (as ML seems to have been neglected in the Sheng Kingdom a lot as a child, I doubt he had a lot of education on history, philosophy, geopolitics, or arms.) But I will say he seems to be doing fine leading war and taking care of of court politics, so sure. (And then also, on which politicans to keep, the Jing court also has its own power structures and powerful families, so some officials you'd def could not just kill off, and ML knows nothing about the situation in that Kingdom).

Obviously the magnifying glass to different issues make different dramas. (I mean if you look at the Story of Minglan, the interactions over marriage and hierarchies of one's power are so central within a family and a wealth class), or dramas like The Story of Yanxi Palace showing the fights between different concubines, and then if you think about other dramas like The Legend of Fuyao or..idk, can't think of references, I just remember scenes where a sudden ascension to power means the palace workers have no time no make a fitting robe and this is usually a slight that becomes an issue for popular opinion. On that note, technically the Ye family could spread gossip about how the King of Jing used to wash their dishes and be bullied to undermine his power, or how the royal court would immediately start talking about the King needing to get a Queen and expand his harem (also, what did he do with the previous King's Harem)-like so many issues being condensed.

Also, if I was the King of Sheng and keeping the Jing prince as hostage was a huge issue, I would not just trust the Ye family to keep it under wraps, right? In other dramas they always make this like lil suspicious scene where the king says, oh we want to 'keep' you in the palace for a few months for a 'vacation', which obviously leads to suspicion and like blah blah blah and that's a whole plot.

Anyways 😅

Edit: I forgot but the ML could totally win this war through his covert animal espionage, by having mice or insects listen in on animals. And if the other Kingdom has any realization of his abilities, they would do some sort of attempt to prevent animals from looking in or having some very very shut in rooms etc. But I guess this goes down to the type of drama.

Edit 2: How did YXW get her flying and magic powers back? Is it bc of the consumption?

^some food for thought

I spent half the episode trying to figure out if those were paid promotion too lol

Look, Jiang Jiao Jiao has his nice moments, but his side loveline isn't hitting it for me. I just hate the whole 'guy acts childish and does shitty things for attention because he doesn' know how to express his love' trope-what is he even doing for FL's sister...? Additionally, the FL's half sister is a nice character; Yes, she might seem to play around at first but she has a dream and goal and she does work hard for it. It's just that her storyline is so unessential to the plot that I don't care at all.

On the other hand, I quite like the new coach x best friend couple, and I think that's because they established each of their personalities and struggles beforehand. For example, after seeing how hard it is for the best friend, I think everyone can root for her to find something in her life outside of parenting that she can enjoy as her best friend can't always be with her, and to find love and be happy. The coach also has an interesting personality, he seems to be also going through.. (cutting off alcohol consumption?) and his deadpan expressions also makes it interesting.

Edit: The usual side character couple arguments/banter seems to fail for Jiao Jiao loveline, but not for the latter. I love the dynamic between the coach and best friend, their quips seem really natural. Meanwhile, the first couple seems to overplay it too much and I just can't see how anybody would tolerate Jiao Jiao's behaviour irl.

Caught up to episode 15...gosh, that scene after the date was heartbreaking but for some reason..I loved it? I loved what the FL was saying and I love how real all of their inner worries and feelings are, and the respect and-one of the best rejection scenes, ever.

How is the influencer half-sister and the (seeming) future pairing with FL's boss' son relevant to this story; they're really random. (Speaking from ep 6)

Oh my gosh my bad..I just reread the synopsis.

HUGE APOLOGIES.

Well, this is different.

(I'm on episode 6 so I thought the plot was going to be on how he conquers his demons and does well in badminton again. I feel like I haven't seen this sort of plot in sports Cdramas before).

Just started watching-am I the only one who's confused about why the title sequence is filled with outdoor courts and tennis balls but the ML plays badminton *professionally*? Are you telling me his arc is a complete sport career change from badminton --> tennis? This is so confusing to me lol.

Read it, and I agree, it rubbed me the wrong way too. I was like, wait, what is the show trying to say....? Sara is an unsympathetic character, villain, and bully because of how she abuses her power, not because she does drugs. Revenge fell short because it was about exposing all of these vulnerabilities that are not standalone traits of the evil she has committed. As in, it looks like, Sara is put on stage where everyone sees her as a junkie = Sara gets her punishment because she is a junkie, or Sara was filmed coerced into a sex act without consent and while being half-conscious, because she's....??? Though Sara's biggest vulnerability is being exposed as being a drug addict (because of her familial background and reputation), the show likes to correlate punishment with wrongdoing, and things like drug addiction aren't standalone/evil. Though I guess this is from the perspective of South Korea and their attitude on drugs, maybe?

Lmao I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks the writers were definitely highhhhh writing this episode because what was that?

I have severely low expectations for episode 16, let’s just get it over with and rate it and finish it pronto snap snap snap. Because wow my enthusiasm has, to put it gently, waned.
Just stupid and very gentle treatment to the villains and shoddy way to tie up their gajillion storylines. Not to mention the randomness of introducing a biological mom plot last two episodes, really?

So every time I come here to write a comment I click on the poster icon under the current SK shows list, and the poster obviously leaves its presence in my memory. And then every time I scroll down to the comments the poster on this page is obviously bigger than the icon. I had a weird feeling about it, but I had no idea why.

Anyways, I ended up staring at it to figure out what it was and I think it's because of a few things.
To me, Choi Chi-yeol doesn't look like himself in the poster; actually, he even looks like a different person with a whole different sort of energy. Secondly, even though I understand the poster layout is to show overlapping newspapers/magazines (Choi Chi-yeol is highlighted as a star teacher) for some reason the composition and colour scheme just looks like the advertisements you see on big billboards advertising a shopping website (could also be the poses and the facial expressions, idk).

Haha I have no idea if this is just all of my own delusions. Btw, I really like the blue, green, and orange colours on the poster; it kind of reminds me of the cover albums of artists who like making soft summery music? Now that I've said that, It could be that I'm just seeing a lot of overlapping details in other media on this poster lol.

Anyways, don't take this comment seriously; I was going to write a little comment about the show but then I realized I had no idea what to write about.

On episode 7. I haven't really ventured into the zombie genre, but as I recently started following 'The Last of Us' (US Video Game Adaptation) and watched 'Train to Busan' (which was fan-flipping-tastic) I decided this to give this a try (and I'll give 'Sweet Home' a try as I've finished the webtoon previously).

I'll just follow it through the end as I'm on episode 7 now, but I don't know how to feel about it. I don't actually care much about the characters except for Nam-Ra (and even that's on the waning side) and the Archer Girl. Not sure why, but I don't feel that connection. Though there's a lot of serious scenes with friends and family drying and gruesome cannibalism and whatnot, I somehow find it to be a bit like a parody, and I can't get into it as well. Not to mention the fact that the pacing is so weird. I also don't know why they speak so much when they're so hungry and thirsty; save your breath. At times characters just WILL NOT clarify what they have seen or done, with the simple phrase 'don't you trust me?' I understand that they are teenagers and in a very mentally harrowing situation but intertwining this one detail with plot holes only gives you a pass to an extent. Additionally, there are several big groups of teenagers, but the story mostly follows one, and other groups seem to have significantly less screen time and/or be unimportant to the main storyline.

Character-wise, I understand that the boys are biologically stronger but the girls basically do nothing (other than Nam-Ra who made some plans and On-jo who made a toilet arrangement) than follow the plans, I think that's a big part of how detached they seem from the emotional core (at least to me). I just don't know why they can't do more.

Some sequences re very creative but I just can't figure out why I can't take some of it seriously. I liked the library sequence, for example, but the initial canteen sequence seemed quite flakey.

And speaking of kissing, I'm already surprised their lips aren't as dry as a desert; I understand that there's always some sort of romance element in zombieworld and high-action pieces, and yeah, I get that adrenaline eggs you on, but that's also something I just-no. But yeah, I get it, so moving on.

I will say that I do appreciate the awareness it brings to school bullying and class discrimination.

Another aspect I think is even more underlooked (that they could have explored) is transmission through non-human means. They use the guinea pig/hamster several times, yet I think the most detrimental would be zombie mosquitos. They even had a close up of an insect landing on the face of the resurrecting guy; anyways, that would be interesting.

Also, this is prettttty slow.
it's not terrible by any means, it's not a masterpiece either, and I think it really belongs in the average zone, truly average. Although I could kind of see if you think otherwise.

Update:
Just finished it, funnily enough i loved the last 2 episodes. The cinematography and emotions were all there. I literally didn't care about anyone who died in the middle but the last two episodes actually ended it well. I think they were actually probably the best episodes of the series; it significantly raises the points. Still a very weary middle though.

Outside of other opinions, it’s always a good thing to be having fun watching something you want to watch.
I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy, but I’m…disgruntled and irritated. If I were truly unhappy I’d straight up drop the show asap, because why bother?

Y’all sure they didn’t mean to name this drama
‘Crash Course in Killing with Metal Balls’?
Well Mr. Ji, you sure can put on a nice smile but that’s not justifying your whole arc lol.

Long post, apologies in advance.
So I made an earlier post when I dropped episode 12 halfway but I got the chance to actually sit down and finish it.

Merits: loved the kiss scene, and there was more main lead romance time than I had initially anticipated. I also love FL’a natural instincts kicking in (you’re so right girl, don’t doubt yourself) but if I was her I’d be second-guessing myself the entire way and overcompensating in niceness to Mr. Ji, so.

Can I just say I freaking love every scene Sun-Jae’s mom is in, she’s such a train wreck and shitty mom but wow, she has presence.
Anywho, their family’s definitely second in worst home layouts of this show (after Chi-Yeol because that man did not open the curtains until this episode or have any light-coloured furniture I swear) because it feels like if you put a juice box on their table you’d be committing a crime. (Also it’s so indoorsy and trapped and all neatly-lined cupboards and recessed lighting smh, not my style)

Well gosh I forgot but after that rooftop home reveal Chi-Yeol’s actually been dethroned. Well I guess both him and Sun-Jae’s family were at least neat and, minimalistic, even though it was to an extreme.

If the leads get married they should be moving in with Haeng-Seon tbh, plus her home is also unrealistically way bigger than in reality but whatever, let’s excuse the drama logic. Also excuse all my home decor comments.

That wasn’t even a lot of merits.

To the cons

When Haeng-seon woke up to go to the market I thought she was going to a funeral and I did a double-take, thinking I had skipped ahead. Because do I need more justification than the fact she wore a black top with a pilgrim styled lace white collar..? Isn’t she going to buy vegetables? The costume department were really sleeping on the job that day. Did like Chi-Yeol’s outfit though.

Minor detail.

Secondly, I still don’t give two pennies about the metal ball killer.

That’s literally all.

Moving ahead,
The relationship thing between FL’s beat friend and brother is just a no-go. Not only is it out of nowhere, the scenes were really random and they have no chemistry or justification for a relationship. Let’s leave it there. Where are the writers in this episode?

And who with two brain cells to scrub together would openly order huge boxes of metal balls. To second that, why on earth are the police not trying to track down any recent suspicious orders of metal balls?

I was wrong about Su-A’s role in the plot though, I think she’ll get a confrontation over her intense studying sessions and eyesight deterioration with her mother, and perhaps my aforementioned unresolved storyline with Su-A’s dad will also give a redemption storyline to her mom as she goes through some sort of epiphany about the predictable I shouldn’t have forced you and we should have taken care of each other and all that.

I like the leads but it wasn’t hitting it today. In fact, I have to admit I was even happy when the episode ended today because I kind of fulfilled my like, obligation/checklist of going through it, but that was also a nice cliffhanger I’d say.

True haha; I had forgotten. What I mean is I think their relationship won’t progress much further than what we’ve seen (there won’t be huge leaps basically)

I agree, the writer's seem to be firing their shots in all directions. I rally doubt on the 'wonderful reveal' and considering the trajectory of K-drama endings I'm not expecting an it's a wonderful life or something. And I agree; I think Hui-jae is obvious bait, Mr. Ji is way too obvious recently, and not obvious enough for Jui-Jae to be the double-bait as the, you dismissed him because you THOUGHT he was too obvious; and for a surprise killer it needs to make sense but anyone else would just not really fit the bill because we don't know much about the actual proceedings of the killings; It also would be like, 'oh, okay' not, 'OH I didn't expect that'.

I agree! I said this in a comment below but one of my favourite scenes was 'when Sun-jae's mom was drunk and hugged him behind and basically gaslit him, it was just very dynamic..and grey.'

Never thought about it but Sun-jae's family therapy would be way more interesting and also be related to the whole critical look at Korean society perspective.
I'm also interested in Sun-Jae's dad and he's not very present in the storyline. He seems to care about the tutoring situation a bit but I'm not sure what else.

One more storyline I wondered if they were going to keep hanging (and why I was surprised they dropped Su-a so quickly) was because the pointed to the fact that Su'a's dad was cheating and both mother and daughter aren't aware, so I thought that would lead into an arc. I think with four episodes left there's room the bring it up (it's probably going to cause Su'a's mom to be close to FL (and her to have a forgiveness arc), and Su-a to endear herself to Hae-Yi and get an arc as well, but it seems random to have them come up again after a period of no-mentions. Or maybe they just leave it there?

With the school stuff I'm not sure if they're just going to stop the story after the mid-terms, or skip ahead to the actual final exam, or the university acceptances.

Me too, I think it's also the first time I saw Geon-hu's face in close-up and I thought, huh, he's a good-looking guy. I think I also preferred Sun-Jae and Hae-Yi at first but now I don't really care; I think the show has Sun-Jae constantly go between the distressed-brother-and son- taking-care -of-his-family role and the silently-present love interest and it's funny to see.

That being said one of my favourite scenes in the show was when Sun-jae's mom was drunk and hugged him behind and basically gaslit him, it was just very dynamic..and grey.

It is kinda predictable; I think everyone was in for the romance and it took a while to get there, and now isn't the focus so it feels like a stagnation phase, but as you said, four episodes to go so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.