Eleison

True, true. That's why I'm selective with Netflix dramas. I don't fully trust their Kdrama storytelling instincts and direction, so I do my research before giving one a shot.

Haha, I use the app, so my block attempts don't work. I still see their posts; I never use my laptop for MDL, so I can't be spared. 😭🤮🤢

I actually think I'm going to lose my mind it drives me so nuts. I'm speaking in hyperbole, but a few people on here just hop from thread to thread and post the same dense garbage over and over and over again. 🤯 I think they believe they will single-handedly change everyone's minds and get them to believe that Kdramas with virgin MLs are all trash (or, to quote one, "soft porn"); or they just take a morbid delight in getting everyone riled up and angry.

I really wish they would start a blog and stop annoying people who just want to enjoy dialoguing about, say, "a horse race" without constantly coming across someone "beating a dead horse" in the process! PLEASE. Pretty please?

Haha, nope, not alone. If I wanted to watch a show that was basically a Western TV show, I would have. I wanted a Kdrama and got a Western TV show with Korean actors instead. I actually am grateful for Korean censorship, it allows for the kind of content I want to see. I don't want to hear obscenities, bawdy innuendos right and left and watch people getting demolished on screen. Pass!

Yes, I LOVED how they portrayed his leadership. He always tried to find the 3rd solution no one thought was an option or maybe didn't even think of!

Agreed!

I know, it was a great drama! Very idealistic, but goodhearted and the kind of idealism I find inspiring rather than fantastical. 😂

I won't be watching D.P. 2 (didn't care for the original D.P.; too gory and crass (or in other words, too "Netflix" 😂)) but I would like to see Jin Hee in another drama. :)

Well, for English speakers, this kind of lisp (with the "s" being pronounced as a "th") usually crops up as a kind of speech impediment and people can sometimes be trained out of it with tongue (myofunctional) therapy. But from what I've seen in historical Kdramas, it's "put on" for a role only, and not the way a actor actually speaks, usually. For instance, the same actors with the lisp in the sageuk won't have that lisp in a modern drama.

Hmmm... I'm not sure what you mean by those that speak with a nassaly sound... ? Can you give an example? 😂

Interesting! Is "boquisopa" Spanish?

That's at least what it sounds like to me, where they don't pronounce "s" properly, with more of a "th" than an "s" sound. Kind of like the difference between the Mexican Spanish "Gracias" (aka pronounced with a hard "s" like Grasias) and some regions of Spain Spanish say it more like "Grathias" with a soft "s."

In Kdramas, at least, it seems to be an affectation the noble/royal women use in historical dramas to sound refined, but it always drives me nuts. 😂 It's super distracting to listen to and is like fingers scratching a chalkboard for me, especially paired with the slow, methodical speech noble/royal women will also use in sageuks. The pairing is 🤯 ... not my cup of tea.

Does the FL (mother/wife) have a lisp in this drama? She had a maddeningly distracting one in Hwarang and I'm hoping it was just the common "royal lady" lisp (not sure what else to call it 😂), that shows up amongst the women of the nobility and royalty in sageuks.

I became Ji Jin Hee's fan (his name sounds like a female Korean name to me 😂) after watching Designated Survivor: 60 Days. Loved him and Son Suk Ku in that drama! They were both my favorite characters to watch and root for.

This is very off-putting, for sure, and the other extreme is just as terrible: parents who let their kids do whatever they want and give them whatever they want. Ends up creating people who can't cope with life and are always victims. 😂

I feel that way, too! The writing is stellar, it's well-acted, etc., but I don't think it quite hit home with everyone, unfortunately. 😔

I felt like it was cohesive and I still enjoyed Season 2. It does have a different vibe from Season 1, but I thought it was fun to see the original Nak Su actress have her moment (she's adorable in her role--did you know the original Nak Su actress voiced all of Mu Deok's thoughts in Season 1? That blew our minds when we found that out!), even though she's quite different than Mu Deok in a lot of ways. She's still smart and clever, but solves issues differently because she has no memories of her past. I think of her as what Nak Su would have been if she'd never become a hardened assassin.

I think many people didn't like it because they had VERY specific expectations for what they wanted Season 2 to be. I didn't, beyond a happy ending, and they delivered on that front. There is less fantasy action/fighting and such, which I think people missed, and people didn't like how "different" Nak Su felt in this season. But to me, she still held continuity with Mu Deok in many ways.

So, I think both seasons had sloppy elements and plot holes, and Season 2 in my opinion didn't have any more of them than Season 1, Season 2 just landed poorly with many fans because by Season 2 they had expectations they wanted met.

Season 2 has a much heavier romantic component, is more angsty, and the leads have less of that camaraderie dynamic (Jang UK becomes much more broody and intense, and Nak Su becomes a ray of hope and sunshine--so they essentially switch roles from Season 1 to Season 2; also, Mu Deok protects and empowers Jang UK in Season 1; in Season 2, these roles reverse as well). I thought they still had excellent chemistry, though.

My main gripe was they prolonged the amnesia plot point a bit longer than I would have liked (and some side characters feel less crucial to the plot than in Season 1), but I thought the ending was great and delivered quite well.

I get why people were disappointed, but I still enjoyed it just about as much (I even think I liked Nak Su in Season 2 better; she was so cute and lovable).

Okay, good to know. It's hard to have good chemistry if one of the leads is still struggling with the basics... 💁‍♀️

That's good to know!

I saw Shin Hyun Bin in Warrior Baek Dong Soo and her acting was as stiff as a board. Probably the worst acting for an FL I've ever seen. Has she improved since then? Cause I have very little motivation to watch her in a drama even though I think Sang Min is a great actor. 😬

If so, then reality is a sad world to live in.

I see, well, I liked him in Unlock My Boss and Castaway Diva. I think he did much better work in those two dramas than this one.

True! But I think it's just harder for people to get used to since it's traditionally not been as much the case. Not saying it's not a double standard, and the tradition around this could be poorly founded, but I think that's one reason.

Also, most people who get married want children (not a rule, but still a bit motivation for people to marry each other as opposed to cohabitation which probably provides less incentive). This is much more difficult (and less likely) if a woman is in her 40's, and a younger guy would have to be okay with that since he might not get to have kids. This issue does not exist in the same way if we flip the age gap between a man and woman.

Also, guys usually take a bit longer to mature; for instance, usually a guy at 20 and a girl at 20 often just aren't equals in maturity. Guys usually take a bit longer to find their bearings than a woman at that same age, especially in the teenage years and early to mid 20's.

I think these are some reasons why people still feel more uncomfortable with older women being with younger men, because paired with the uncommon age gap is the maturity gap. This isn't a rule of course, but I think it's why people still have a harder time with it.

But also, over 10 years of difference in age in any direction just makes practical compatibility in a relationship more difficult to navigate. For instance, a couple's friend groups in this scenario might not mesh super well (a guy in his late 20's with friends his age probably isn't going to have much in common with a woman in her early/mid 40's who has friends around her age (in my opinion). I mean, do you see that happening much? A couple flourishing in their relationship won't be living in a vaccuum where they have no friends or social outlets, but a friend group or community they share can be trickier to build with this setup), which is maybe why stories with such age gaps feel especially fantastical and particularly unrealistic (though, to be fair, Kdramas aren't realistic anyway 💁‍♀️).

The older people get, the less this seems to be true, but I personally get why people struggle with the noona romances if there are large age gaps. It comes with more social drawbacks that make the romance harder to swallow.

Yeah, but for all their charms, many early 2010's dramas show very toxic relationship dynamics. I think it's a good thing many of those dynamics are behind us in Kdramaland.