Gala Ramirez

The most memorable ones are with HJP. Also the theme "Future" is def about him.

Thought the same lol Like, who hurt you? The writer?

I wouldn't trust any ratings out there. In Imdb Startup is rated 8,2 which, in my opinion, is a lil too high. And most of the reviews are 10/10 saying how great the drama is without giving reasonable explanations why (maybe PHR taught them that lol). I don't trust any rating that people can make fake accounts and vote. This is something common among Kpop/Hallyu stans. They will go till the end of the world to stream or upvote their faves (we've seen some examples here too).

I would rather trust Google trends and the general opinion from Twitter comments/instagram etc. and we can see that in all that HJP's popularity is superior. Stans can try how hard they want, this won't make this drama good. Just with scriptwriting basics you can tell this drama is a mess whether you ship the main couple or not. Without Suzy and NJH we would have peace discussing how lazy the writing gets in the end.

Yes, yes and yes. I'm not even mad at the endgame. If PHR wanted Dodal to happen, she should have started it differently and tell the story of how the past should remain in the past and how we fall in love with people different from us, people that fate brought into our life. For me it's exactly how you put it, because they didn't show us the process of Roxanne realizing Christian is soulmate material. We don't see her liking any other thing from him apart from big hands. I am not convinced

Either the writer did a terrible awful job or the ending was changed.

Hahahahhaahahahahahaha somewhere in the middle of all the acronyms I changed his name unintentionally. Thank you so much for letting me know. And let's say it's short for Saint Do San xD

True. If the writer decided from the first moment the letters to be what brings SDM/SDS together she should have taken another path. Maybe giving them less importance the first episodes and focus more on the things SDM liked about SDS from the present. But she did none of that. From a storytelling/scriptwriting point of view, the story from ep 1-9 is supposed to end differently and the story from ep 9-16 was supposed to start differently. That's why I can't like it.

Yes, it was supposed to be their journey to success, but as many other dramas that talk about youth, they were supposed to grow and learn. Which also didn't happen.

Production has nothing to do with story. I actually enjoy quality production. Startup and Cloy are produced by Studio Dragon so...

I don't see it as a flaw. Studio dragon produces great drama quality wise. But if you miss the old not that fancy dramas, I get you

Yep, you're right. So much content is missing.

I saw clips of him from all his dramas and I could def tell which one was HJP and which one was KSH, which one was from Waikiki and so on. They have such different auras, it makes me want to praise KSH's acting even more. I want him in a more mature role, something like Startup. Can't help it, I love HJP

They will fall apart. Researches show that couples that rarely disagree usually break up. And that without taking in consideration SDS's insecurities and obsessiveness. It's bound to happen. The drama stops when they get married and won't show you their problems of communication which will eventually lead to a painful break up and DM finally regretting one of her choices. Who can't see it's because they don't like reality

My explanation on why I prefer Jidal over Dodal: Jidal did represent a healthier relationship. They both are not afraid to talk back to each other (that's a good relationship trait) and they notices each other. HJP see SDM's resiliency and her nosiness, SDM notices HJP's nosiness too and is grateful to him. They looked overall more like a healthy couple because they did't lose their individuality. They even said they liked each other's nosiness.

They also get each other (SDM understands HJP: she notices his absence and there's lot of other scenes). I'm not saying the writer spent time in making them happen, but even in their mentee-mentor relationship I saw them as equals in terms of personality. (all before SDM lost his personality and became an object). She stood up for herself in every moment, asking HJP question about why he's so nice to her. I liked that Dalmi

With Dodal, my big problem is that she discovers he is not the Dosan from the letters just a few days before he went to USA. At this point she was in love with a mix of Dosan with HJP, she wasn't in love with the real Dosan because she couldn't tell who is who.

Also Dosan giving up on his values for a pretty girl it was a turn off for me. And the fact that he agreed with everything Dalmi said screams codependency to me. This is a relationship that psychology studies tell us will break apart (they rarely disagree=they will break up) and no, I didn't make that up.

And I do agree with you that the letters shouldn't be a reason for people to fall in love. HJP actually looked like he liked her for who she was in the present (when she had a personality lol I wasn't mad at him for not remember her name) and I wanted her to like him for who he was in the present.

Like you said some comments above, the only thing that didn't make sense at all is why both guys liked her. I agree with that. The Dalmi from the end was a soulless body.

I love Cyrano and I'm sad they didn't go that way, with people falling in love with people's souls. I wanted DM to be curious about HJP because he reminds her too much of the boy from the letters. I'm a romantic. I wanted something deep but maybe I'll try to get that from a different writer.

I'm more mad at the potential because I agree with most of the points you're making. I'm just giving you my reasons on why I liked them together and it had to be more with the potential than with what we got.

Yep, the higher the expectations, the bigger the disappointment

I fangirl over him too so go ahead :)

I like you going through all the details. I do believe something changed but can't get a hold on what. HJP/SDM will always make sense to me plotwise. When we were all talking about the symbolism I had this thought: "this could be the best drama of my life or the worst". Sadly it ended up in the second category. I kinda wanted something good to happen in 2020.

I would say HJP is a typical first male lead. Usually most main male leads are like him. He was written as a ML and given SL in the love triangle. He is not typical at all for me as a SL

And tho SDS was "different" I only liked him in the first episodes when he was awkward and a nerd. When he loses his characteristic traits and become some toxic young teenager, I started to dislike him and the writer. The writer didn't accomplish what she intended to

Also, harsh critics as HJP are not that common in kdrama land. Maybe in the western series/films/tv shows yes (Gordon Ramsey for example, and people love Gordon Ramsey)

If you're young and live in a rich country, with your parents providing everything for you and still you treat them how you want, have all the opportunities you want because connections and/or money, yeah it's grounded in reality. Sadly that's not the reality for more than 90% of the world population, which won't consider NDS life close to reality.

Consider yourself lucky and be grateful for the life you have. Most people can't afford doing what NDS did through the drama.

I had to do it, I had to upload the pic of HJP with the blue shirt. It was iconic

Good for you

Good method of improving your writing. If you put it that way, I'm rooting for you :)