Frings

I'm fine with her retiring (I agree with you it's probably what happens), I think I'm more worried about the circumstances surrounding it and how much we get to see of what happens afterwards.

Ooooh is that the LQ hug picture I saw floating around twitter? Wow I hadn't connected the dots that that's what that was. That would be lovely to see.

And I agree it'd be nice to see each of them! I had been kind of holding on to the fact that Hee Do's mom knew their names and more about their dynamics with Hee Do as an indication that their stories together don't end there, but who knows. Now that I think about it, her mom only mentions Yurim and Yijin by name, and she'd know both their names for other reasons. But she does indicate to know about Hee Do and Yurim's past personal history in detail.

My main concern honestly is what's going to happen with Yurim. I'm exercising my suspension of disbelief on her being able to represent Russia at the next Olympics, and I have to say that if she ends up doing that only for everything to go wrong for her (not meaning just losing - after all they've hinted heavily that she stops fencing), I'm going to struggle. :/
At least if that's the case I'd like to know what more happens - does she go back? Go elsewhere? Does she find something else other than fencing? What of her family? How long are she and Hee Do in each other's lives? If things go wrong, does her bond with Yijin remain and help? I forgot about Ji Woong LOL oops, I'm less concerned about that.
I am worried about where they go with this arc that involves her because I reckon the final two eps might not have time to answer all of them on top of the main ones for Hee Do, Min Chae, and Yi Jin. Give my girl one (1) anchor pls writer-nim.

Aaaaaaaa it's almost here 😭 this is it kids, we're coming up to the finish line 😩

Cheers to that, hoping it'll be great

I think I'm a bit more of a sceptic on romantic relationships I guess hahaha. But yeah, I will say that a lot of romance media tends to present basic communication issues that are pretty much just misunderstandings that could be cleared up as these huge insurmountable things, so it's an annoying trope to see. Definitely hoping for something that makes sense for the characters and the journey so far, and if it's a conflict, for it to be interesting. Here's hoping, hope you get to enjoy the finale!

That's what I mean though, they had a bunch of arcs where they hadn't communicated with each other very well - including his pushing away of her and not clarifying why right before they got together. I wouldn't say his kissing her and saying let's try resolves the communication problem of that example; only addresses the "so that's what you were feeling all that time" problem. I don't see them as two people who communicate that amazingly that it wouldn't make sense for it to become a problem to tackle in the future IMO. But, well: that's gonna definitely vary person by person depending on how we each take their dynamics thus far. I'm looking forward to seeing what the writers have in store for us, I think they've earned some faith in their care for the characters. Personally I feel like it's realistic for there to be problems/barriers you can't solve no matter how much you care for someone or how well you communicate with them. Hopefully if the separated ending is what they're going for, it'll be something that lands for the audience as a whole. 🙏

Honestly I wouldn't say their communication has been so great thus far - IIRC a lot of what Hee Do has gotten to know about Yijin has been through means other than him telling them to her himself directly. He also spent the immediate lead up to their romantic relationship starting not telling her what he truly wanted and trying to push her away, leaving her confused and hurt. She feels very strongly about the things she cherishes, as well as about what she thinks is right or unforgiveable, sometimes to a fault. She is bold and impulsive, he is careful and withdrawn. They have different priorities in life as well; different careers, different family lives, financial circumstances; all of these things can impact how you communicate about certain things and over certain challenges. I don't think it's character regression at all to acknowledge those things when giving the characters a scenario to handle - even (and almost more importantly) if it's similar to something that has happened in the past. I mean, of course we can't say whether the supposed break-up is writen well or not if we haven't seen it yet, so this is all based on the hypothetical presented of communication issues. We might all be terribly wrong or terribly correct coming next week. 😛

Wouldn't the fact that it took this long for them to fall in love/be together support the fact that the show is not about that rather than that they didn't give themselves enough time to pull off what they wanted to though, especially considering the quality of the writing thus far? Sure it means a short lived romantic relationship on screen, but if the show never purported to be just about the romantic relationship in the first place, I think it makes more sense to understand that they chose not to dedicate more time to it intentionally. The other media you mentioned as comparisons are specifically about the romantic relationships in question, whereas I'd say this show has always been about Hee Do's journey first, the main characters' journeys second, and strictly romantic relationships last. We still have yet to know what/if/how a separation will happen though, so we can't say whether or not it makes sense yet.

(here I come rambling in an entirely too long comment again lol, sorry in advance)
I love your view on it and definitely share it as well. It is interesting to see the interpretation that it's not a happy ending for young Hee Do if she doesn't end up with Yi Jin as if we haven't seen adult Hee Do having a good relationship with her mother and daughter, having succeeded in her career, and, as you said, being content with her life as far as we have seen it; not only that, but also as if we didn't see earlier how sad younger Hee Do had been. It is also strange to see something similar being said of Yijin, whose happiness in the past and surely in the present depends on a lot more than his relationship with Hee Do. One seems to need to ignore everything actually presented by the show to take that romantic relationship (or any of them) as the crux of it - and this is coming from someone who ships things HARD. Everyone's feelings are their own of course, and I think if you really root for a couple, it's perfectly understandable to be disappointed; as is to be disappointed if you were hoping for a certain type of ending. But it cannot be said that the show ever portrayed itself to be *about* that romance specifically IMO.

If I may jump off your comment, there's also a lot of peculiar outlooks on what love "actually" is going around as well lol, plus on what it takes to maintain relationships. Hee Do marrying someone else does not mean she does not love that someone else just because she once loved Yi Jin, even if she still has love for him in the present, nor does it mean she did not love Yijin just because she moved on. I truly love media that portrays relationships that come to an end as precious, because the "happily ever after" trope gets quite tiresome for someone who has to live in the real world where love and desire isn't the only thing that is needed to make things work, and where the person you are today exists because of all of the people who have passed through your life regardless of whether or not they're still in it. Where you need to learn to handle things coming to an end healthily, and to welcome new things despite knowing that they will end, because otherwise you'd be actively rejecting happiness. I don't even think that that type of story is bittersweet; in fact I think it's very sweet to recognize and relish in the value of human bonds in all the varied ways and durations that they can come in. And, as you said, not tying a person's happiness to a single other person is not only positive and comforting, but healthy as heck, and a beautiful thing to celebrate.

Saw some people earlier mentioning pacing issues - I hadn't felt it so far, but these last two episodes did feel to be dragging a bit...

Found out that there's already an active 2521 section on AO3... 🔍👀

I hope we get a ton of fanworks of the show overall, have already seen so much gorgeous fanart on twitter too!

It does feel like the show could've benefitted from more episodes given the pacing we've gotten used to :s

For everyone suffering right now, you should go watch Kim Taeri being the most endearing human being on the planet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kuLLaWdE4E

Holy, that was quite the marathon! Welcome to the killing wait for the finale with us now!

It definitely feels weird (the leak was the most sucky part), though I think the majority of the audience won't know about the leaks and maybe even the episode summary/changes. Will be interesting to see the reactions once the eps are actually out.

Idk, this sounds less like the show failed the purpose they had for the story and more like they failed the purpose you wanted to get from it. Which is fine to be disappointed with, but this show has always been about Hee Do's journey and its impact from/on her relationships (mainly her family: mother and daughter). IMO Yijin's story just happened to cross with hers for a period of it. Hell, one could argue that in fact from the very first episode of the show they actually set it up as the story of Na Hee Do and Go Yu Rim if anything lol. I maintain it has always been about Hee Do though, and quite clearly so. Just because love/romance is present in a story doesn't make it inherently about that, and the show never really indicated differently in its writing - arguably only ever in its marketing since that's what distributors know sells.

Another question to help frame why this question seems very odd to me: What's the point of loving someone in life if you don't know you'll end up with them forever? Isn't it better to just live alone forever then?

One might argue it's not relevant to ask that since this is a TV show and they choose what to portray, but the show has consistently talked about how things that are over don't stop being meaningful just because of it. It has never felt like it was about NH/YJ romance to me, but even if it was, the supposed coming ending doesn't feel at odds at all with what has happened so far?

Here with ya, just have been reading everything this past day while eating some popcorn and writing Heerim fanfic and riding off the high that was that amazing last episode. Frankly if anything some of the spoilers have put me at ease tbh

https://n.news.naver.com/entertain/article/108/0003040049

This article mentions a tentative expected release on theaters in June

Argh, I hope it doesn't take THAT long again... I love seeing her face doing stuff on my screen. She's too good :'(

I do wonder if she'll continue being more of a movies actress though or if we'll get to see her picking another drama before a new movie.