Kseniya Green

I believe creators should be held accountable for queerbait when they do it. I'm fine with an ambiguous ending in the "take it as you please" category. But if creators completely violate the promise inherent in the cinematic language of drama, it's no longer a matter of subjective taste. It's a matter of professional integrity.
It's like selling something as a detective novel, following the narrative of a classic detective novel, creating a strong detective intrigue... and ending with aliens arriving and kidnapping the detective just as he was about to solve the mystery. The end. 😅

Jeongyo is gay, down to every detail of his persona, every micro-expression.

With Pio, it's more complicated. He might be bi, he might be gay, maybe demisexual. His identity has been so repressed his entire life that he himself doesn't yet fully understand what he feels and for whom.

In real life, sometimes such people even get married and have children "because that's how everyone lives," only to realize in their 30s that they're not into women at all.

In any case, in my subjective opinion, there's not a single moment in the drama that would indicate Pio feels any romantic attraction to Jaein.

Maybe it will be a student? Some new gifted kid?

If this drama ends with Jeongyo having a family with a woman, I will laugh hysterically while giving it a 0 rating on every possible platform 😂

I sympathize with Pio and can understand why he behaves this way. But I will be very angry if this drama makes Pio the main victim in this situation and makes Jeongyo suffer more because of Pio. Not because I don't like Pio, but because it would be ethically wrong.
This whole music world has failed Jeongyo, and Pio has failed him too. It will be beautiful and right if Pio can stand up for Jeongyo against these people, against his mother first of all. But if Jeongyo has to suffer from guilt towards Pio, that would be a very bad message in my opinion.

That moment when he was surrounded by girls and looked like a hopeless cat person surrounded by overly friendly puppies. With that “Help!” look on his face 😁

Yes. What you say about dance - I think this is also a theme that one way or another is raised in the drama. That art should be a space where you can find yourself, be free, and heal your soul. But too often art turns into business and a struggle of ambition. And people with a traumatized personality who find themselves in this world very young very often either break down or become entrenched in a toxic scenario.

Pio's mother does have psychopathic traits, but I would call her a malignant narcissist. I don't think she consciously manipulates Pio. In my opinion, she simply projects her own narcissism onto Pio. She wants to believe in Pio's greatness because through him, she feels great. And at the same time, deep down, she hates him. Pio is her greatest investment in life, and she simultaneously cherishes him and despises him when this investment doesn't pay off.

I also have a narcissistic mother, but I severed all ties with her. It wasn't easy. For a while, I was sure I was going to die. But I've never regretted it.

I just really hope he actually gets that moment of choice. That the situation won't resolve itself without his participation.
This drama raised a good and complex topic. But with such a topic, if the writers aren't thoughtful enough, it's very easy to derail everything in the final episodes.

I don’t know what the creators are going for and how well they will be able to implement it, but at this stage for me this is a drama not about revenge or sacrifice, but about two people who have lost themselves to the extent that they are tormenting what is most dear to them. Both. Each in his own way. And the problem is that no matter how much they torment each other, they can only find the lost fragments of themselves in each other.

I disagree that Pio's mother bribes him with images of grandiosity. In my view, the essence of the situation is different. His mother, in a peculiar tandem with his grandfather, raised Pio to believe that he only has the right to exist and do what he loves if he's the first. And if he can't be the first, he shouldn't exist at all.
This is the essence of the trauma created by narcissistic parents - not spoiling, but the deep-seated conviction that your right to exist is entirely determined by whether other people are satisfied with you. It can be very difficult for an outsider to imagine how deeply this brainwashes. Breaking free from this can be more difficult then breaking free from a cult.
But yes, the most important and sometimes the only chance to do so is to find something so valuable that it feels even more valuable than your own right to exist. As long as Pio is fixated on his own worth or worthlessness, he will never break free.

This is horrifying, I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't even imagine how triggering it must be to encounter such a plot in a drama.
I completely agree, and we already see in the drama itself, that Pio's silence could very well have cost Jeongyo his life if Pio's mother had hired assassins. And this time, Jeongyo's death would have been Pio's responsibility too.
Yes, I understand that his mental state is so depressed that he's in a state of derealization and doesn't fully comprehend the situation. But I really hope the story is moving toward Pio being able to turn against his mother for the sake of the person dear to him. This is the only way I see their relationship being restored.
Any resolution to the situation with his mother without an active confrontation on Pio's part would ruin the entire point of the drama for me.

I agree but only partly. Of course, Pio is not just an innocent victim, he finds himself in the position of an accomplice to evil. But I don’t think that he does this out of pure selfishness and dreams of grandeur. In my opinion, he actually - surprisingly, given his whole situation - knew how to go beyond the boundaries of egoistic desires.
Jeongyo would probably simply not be in the world of music, he would have ended his life in some kind of street showdown, if not for Pio. And Pio pulled him out with full knowledge that he was pulling out his main competitor.

But the problem is that Pio has a very, very deep personality disorder. And a person in such a state is not only unable to always make the right decisions, he is not always able to even comprehend the real situation. His personality and perception of himself and reality are distorted.
And while he does not have internal support, he cannot mentally separate from his mother. Not because it benefits him to be under her tutelage. But because in his condition, going against his mother feels like going against God for a fanatically religious person. It's easier for him to die.

I really hope they don't ruin the drama with a primitive religious narrative in the finale 🙏

As I've already said, guilt is not the same as compassion. And compassion isn't measured by how much pain someone feels because of their own guilt.
Pio doesn't run from guilt - he drowns in it, and this is precisely what prevents him from fully opening up to other people's feelings.
If he were more in touch with Jeongyo's feelings, he would understand that by taking on his mother's guilt, he was inflicting even greater wounds on Jeongyo. And no amount of obedience could compensate for that.

I'm not saying this to judge Pio. It's entirely to be expected in his situation. No one in his life except Jeongyo, not even Jaein, taught him to be in touch with another person's feelings and not be destroyed by them. He only knows how to be a sacrificial lamb and mistakes sacrifice for an expression of love, but in reality, it's not.

Compassion is not a punishment for guilt, it is a cure for it.

I know from personal experience that breaking a codependent relationship with a narcissistic mother feels like jumping off a cliff. You feel like you'll definitely die from it, fall apart, and it will be hell.
That's precisely why it's so difficult to do it for yourself. You need some value, that will be more important than even your own unbearable guilt. And I think Pio is moving in that direction.
Playing Jeongyo's piece has become more meaningful to him than preserving himself, and paradoxically, it's what can save him.

And I think Jeongyo is partly right when he accused Pio of "hiding/running" from Jeongyo's feelings. Yes, Pio is drowning in guilt, but guilt is not the same as empathy. Until recently, Pio was preoccupied with his own guilt, not Jeongyo's feelings.
Because if he had truly experienced everything Jeongyo had to endure, he wouldn't have been able to even be under the same roof with his mother. She would become unbearably disgusting to him. And I hope that's precisely the direction the story is heading.

Yes. And I'll say more: I think people don't understand that what Pio is doing feels like betrayal, even if Jeongyo knew the whole truth. And I say this with complete sympathy for Pio and an understanding of why he's so far unable to act differently. But that doesn't makes his actions any better for Jeongyo.
Just imagine: you loved someone, they were the best thing in your life, you were willing to give up everything for them. But then their evil mother ruined your life and plunged you into chronic pain. And now this man comes along and, with the air of a saintly martyr, covers for his mother. He helps the creature who ruined your life evade responsibility. Wouldn't you feel betrayed?

Yes, I agree with that! There are moments in the drama that seem a bit forced for the sake of drama and the realization of the main idea.

I can partially explain this by assuming that Jeongyo was not in his right mind from the start. That Pio's breakdown at the lake had hurt Jeongyo more deeply than he perhaps realized, and when the attack occurred so soon after, these two experiences became intertwined. It was as if all his feelings had been turned upside down. The fire that had been his passion had turned into hatred due to the shock, and the slightest evidence was enough to cement this feeling as reality. It was as if, along with playing the piano, Jeongyo had lost contact with a significant part of himself and reality.

Of course. That's the tragedy of such scenarios. If one takes on the role of sacrificial lamb, the other ends up as the executioner, and this will ultimately destroy them as well.
I'm absolutely certain that even if Jeongyo never learns the truth, if Pio breaks, he will break along with Pio. He already feels the pain in his arm growing more acute with each attack on Pio. But right now, Jeongyo is in a state of despair where he, consciously or not, is ready to crumble along with Pio.
Someone must break this scenario first, or we will face an ancient tragedy.