Eleison

I'm also in between! Keep coming because I am enjoying the characters and their development (however slow), the setting in Jeju, etc., but it's not on my "best ever" list nor my least enjoyed list, but I don't feel tempted to skip things, so that's a big plus in its favor. :) (Though I'm getting tempted with the more recent Sang Do scenes, as he is becoming superfluous; I just want the friends to all be friends again; and I miss the Reply 1988 vibes it was giving us in the beginning!)

I don't know, healing dramas with romance tend to have the climax related to the point of tension and misunderstanding that needs resolution, forgiveness or healing that intertwines with the love line in some way (I'm thinking of dramas like Oh My Venus and Go Back Couple, just to name a few). And this is most definitely a story about all our characters healing, not just the leads, since all of them have had their suffering they are still healing from. That's how I see it, at least.

It might go up a bit once it finishes? Some users (like me), might wait to rate it until it's over. It's possible! Especially if the last two episodes end strong. 😊

I'm not disagreeing with you, and I promise I'm not trying to pick a fight, but, as far as your parallel goes, I'd just like to point out that fighting for the unborn is quite different from holding on to memories of the dead...?

But it doesn't sexify (is that a word? haha) the ssireum wrestlers or make a big deal about them being shirtless (which I appreciate). And the shirtless look is not across the board flattering for all the wrestlers...

Then you might want to switch genres, haha, cause they're not going away... between these two tropes, you've covered a feature of like 80-90% of romantic Kdramas. They're melded with this entertainment medium in so many ways.

His priorities are frustratingly unambitious. 😂

In fact, now that we know more about how much he loves ssireum, and how little he cares about winning (is it possible he only wanted to win because Du Sik wanted to see it happen?), I've become increasingly puzzled by him wanting to quit, which before made perfect sense since he was not "doing well" at it in the first few episodes. But now we know he never really cared about doing well. I suppose he got temporarily jaded? And all he needed was a gentle nudge (maybe not so gentle 🙄; more like a series of smacks!) from his Muse to rekindle his love. 😅

Yes, I think so.

😅

That's true, @r0204_me, but MDL is also a kind of community, isn't it? A community of people who have shared interests and who like to nerd out about dramas and want to talk about them, learn more about them, maybe nit-pick from time to time, etc.... but probably most of all, they come to this site and participate because they enjoy dramas. That's what this site is for; a place to build community over enjoyment of dramas/East Asian entertainment.

It's thoughtful and observant of someone who's part of a community to realize when they are creating an inhospitable environment for that community to flourish and enjoy each other; that doesn't mean everyone in the community has to agree all the time, but it helps tremendously when participants are thoughtful of the environment they're creating through their participation.

Take the lunchroom at work; when someone just shows up repeatedly to spew negativity and nit-pick the same gripes day after day after day (rather than saying their constructive piece of frustration and moving on), it hampers the rest of the community from existing, and from connecting over things they enjoy. Toxic environments stifle and stymie robust, healthy and enriching conversations and connection, and instead spread gloominess and frustration (and who needs more of that in their lives?). Obviously it's not wrong or immoral for a person to repeatedly diss or nit-pick what is other people's enjoyment, but it's not thoughtful or hospitable to them or the community, and shows a social obliviousness (and fixation on their own opinions and point of view) that is quite tiring. Even more tiring is when the obliviousness extends to thinking that being repeatedly negative and critical (because "it's true and people need to hear it") will actually make any tangible difference in a situation and what people think about it. That has not been my experience of the negativity in the lunchroom. It does next to nothing.

From my perspective, the most likely thing a repeatedly negative person who thinks they can change things can actually change, is the mood of the "room"...

Fixed the paragraphs. :)

To your comment about my judgment of you as a person, if you notice in my analogy, I compared your participation in this thread to the teacher's participation in that one lunchroom in particular; by doing so, I am speaking to your contribution to THIS thread's community, not other dramas' threads; obviously, I can't speak to those if I haven't seen them). But I'm glad to hear that you don't merely take delight in being a Debbie Downer and picking fights; that's encouraging to hear. :)

Question: does repeating the same thing more than once suddenly make it more convincing?

I won't deny you have made some good points here and there that made me think (like that conversation we had about the safety of men vs. women drinking, which, once I figured out what you meant and looked past your offensive delivery, made sense); I have tried to be a good listener of your posts and opinion throughout the past few weeks and mine through the rudenesss to find the meat, but it's become the same thing on repeat, and frankly, I'm tired of it. So... I am throwing in the towel 😂. You won't give people on here a break and keep harping, harping, harping on literally the same stuff, haha. There'd be days where I'd think, "Huh, it's been so pleasant on the WTS thread recently," and then I'd realize, "Oh, it's cause @mooc didn't post yet." But here you eventually came, guns ablazing, crusade re-engaged.

I know my version of joining my fellow teachers in another room at the school besides the lunchroom IS blocking you, but it was my last resort. *sigh* I gave it a try, anyway.

You're a tenacious contrarian, I'll give you that. And I'm sorry my experience of you on this thread made me unable to have the chance to listen to your other more positive comments on other dramas' threads. But you don't seem to mind people blocking you, so I don't feel too bad. ☺️

🫡

Awesome! You all helped me immensely. Greatly appreciate it. :)

Hi @mooc, some food for thought. I don't think ALL users are getting frustrated with your comments and attacking you personally because they disagree with you and because they don't have arguments to respond with. Instead, it might be another reason?

While participating on this thread, in a sense, we're all joining a metaphorical "lunch room" (this comment thread for WTS). Let's imagine we're all educators because we enjoy educating students and working at our school (aka as an analogy for those who enjoy watching Kdramas). At our school, this particular lunchroom is the place where teachers come to connect about their day, share about their victories with students and ways they want to make their curriculum better or improve teaching practices, express some challenges they have with this kid or that kid and talk about how to resolve them, and appreciate what they enjoy about their school which they love (even if it has issues, as all schools do, which they will constructively critique from time to time, they will still stick around because they connect over their shared passion and love for this place and what they do), etc.

Instead of getting to do that, however, these teachers repeatedly get subjected to a member of their community in the lunchroom who repeats over and over how awful administration is at x, y, and z, and how awful student behavior is, point out how frustrating it is that the school has so many assemblies and expectations for staff, and how terrible they are at clear communication, etc. Their gripes might be valid and accurate about issues the school has, but for the majority of the teachers, these are not make-it-or-break-it issues as there are other things they deeply enjoy and love about the school, so these criticisms won't be things they always relate to or want to talk about very much on a consistent basis.

Instead of this teacher reading the room, leaving the school because they don't like a thing about it or trying to be open to other points of view and topics so that people feel like welcoming them into conversation in the lunchroom, they remain at the school and continue to join the lunchroom while endlessly nit-picking and critiquing the same problems and issues they notice every day, thinking it will change something.

Eventually, many of those teachers who would have enjoyed each other's company and connecting over their passion, will probably leave the lunchroom because a member of their community persisted in being oblivious (here my comparison breaks down because there are other rooms the teachers could meet to hang out in, but this is the only place to talk about WTS; while there is the "block" feature on MDL, it fragments the dialogue and interactions of the community and users, in my opinion, and I personally try to avoid it if I can because I really don't mind engaging thoughtful, differing opinions and can ignore the passing unpleasant or negative comment; however, very few people can abide hearing negative and rude critique ad nauseum).

Have you ever stopped to consider whether you're being a thoughtful member of this thread/site's community? You have no obligation for doing so, of course, but from what I can see, while you seem to enjoy talking to people and want to be a part of the community here, you also seem to be struggling to "read the room." I know this is a very pointed comparison that may not land, but I thought I'd try inviting you to be a part of cultivating a more hospitable environment for enjoyable and enriching conversations and community.

Ooh, I think you're on to something for 2 reasons besides the one you mentioned: 1) his placement in the cast is confusing based on his role so far, which has been very small, and 2) because Snowball barked at him in this last episode (or the one before it, can't remember), and she had been barking at the reservoir when Du Sik's coworker found her and everyone remarked at how she never barks...

No need to apologize--I enjoy long comments because I also write my fair share of lengthy ones. 😅

I like WTS, personally. It's not my favorite drama ever, and wouldn't ever make a list of my favorites or of the greats, but there's enough that I find enjoyable which keeps me coming back. ☺️

Also, I love that Baek Du doesn't care one bit about the town gossips. He's gloriously oblivious, or just manages to let things slide off his back somehow and never stops doing his thing and being himself. He's truly one tough cookie. ☺️

Oh, I love San Suk ku!! He stole the show in Designated Survivor: 60 Days.

It's funny that drunk Baek Du is way ahead of sober Baek Du. Cause sober Baek Du still has no idea he's in love with Du Sik. 😅

Oh yeah, another one with great chemistry. They were just the cutest!

Sometimes I find it cozy that Kdramas make space for things that are not "main plot" material; dramas will sometimes have more meandering scenes or characters that will usually mean something or be significant in the grand scheme of the story if you look hard enough, but would never see the light of day in a western TV show or movie because it would be seen as purposeless, money-wasting fluff; they'd always end up in "deleted scenes." We Americans are very keen utilitarians. As a society, we have very little room for that which is not stricly necessary or useful (though when hundreds of millions of dollars are stake in the entertainment industry, I guess you can't afford to be whimsical!).