Lilli_

That's exactly it!

For those who still believe that Han Ji Pyung is a clichee character, here's a little comparison of how an imaginary typical Kdrama lead (TKDL) and Ji Pyung would react in different situations (I'm leaving Do San out since I think we all agree that he's not typical):

Situation: FL runs away and ML wants to stop her.
TKDL: Grabs her by the wrist.
HJP: Respects her feelings and lets her leave.

Situation: FL is poor and can't afford to buy the clothes she wants.
TKDL: Drags her to a clothing store without asking and buys their entire sortiment for her.
HJP: Gives her tips on how to efficiently save money so that she can afford to buy the dress she's been eyeing after a few months.

Situation: FL says something so lovely that ML feels the urge to express his love in that very moment even though they're in no romantic relationship.
TKDL: Hugs her.
HJP: Goes to water his plant.

That's what came to my mind spontaneously. Fellow JP stans, if you've got more, please share!

I just replayed the scene from ep. 12 where Ji Pyung confronts SST with the truth after Dal Mi and Sa Ha were fired (since it was being mentioned in the comments here today) and omg, the face Ji Pyung makes right before leaving while Do San angrily stares at him and cries is just pure gold haha . That's us while watching Do San scenes hahaha.

Right, that's another inconsistency. I bet we could dig up even many more haha.

I just noticed another detail that proofs that Do San's character has become extremely inconsistent. In ep. 11 when Dal Mi and Do San visit the old office, they talk about the meat smell and then he tells her: "If you eat gimbap here with your eyes closed, it'll taste like premium beef". This is something Do San would never ever say and just completely out of character. And no, I firmly believe that we can't see this as some sort of growth and that he's come to understand things he didn't before. Having this kind of imagination is like a million steps away from how he used to be. He didn't understand stuff like this at all, and now he even imagines things himself? Not credible at all.

This conversation doesn't even strike me as important (or is there any hidden meaning that I failed to notice?) so that you'd have to twist his character to include it, so why did the writer have him say this? Or she just didn't care and just wrote whatever could be deemed romantic haha.

Anyway, there are slight inconsistencies in Ji Pyung's character as well every now and then but it's nowhere near the level of inconsistencies we can perceive in the other characters. Which makes me once more believe that the writer must deem Ji Pyung as the most important character. In the ideal case, every character would be consistent, but if the writer isn't able to achieve this, they'd put all their efforts into writing the most important character(s) as consistently as possible while twisting the lesser important ones so that the plot can move into the wanted direction, wouldn't they? What do you think?

It's really nice to see a Do San fan who isn't so extremely biased that all arguments defy logic! That's how it should be if we want a fruitful discussion, so thank you for sharing your point of view!

Just like some others have already said, I too didn't dislike Do San from the get-go even though I've always preferred Ji Pyung. But I believe this is really just a question of personal preference. If we were still in the first episodes, I'd see nothing wrong with people choosing one or the other. Do San is a really interesting character, but he was butchered in the middle of the drama to the point that most people feel like they can't support this character anymore. Actually, if we go by logic, it's even impossible to support him if the character doesn't change again. You've already perfectly pointed out the reasons yourself. While this has resulted in dissapointment for you, some of us reacted even stronger and feel very frustrated over this, thus the so-called hate.

Oh, and we've said this many times here already, but I'm sure you haven't read all thousands of comments, so I'll make this clear one more time. We aren't sleeping on Nam Joo Hyuk's talents and on the contrary even applaud him for portraying such an unlikeable (unlikeable as in the recent episodes) character so well. A lot of people here are even Nam Joo Hyuk fans but still prefer Ji Pyung as a character.

You're right. Since we're just having a personal conversation, I'll delete my previous comment as well.

Ikr! I love literary translation to bits. Unfortunately, it's impossible to make a career out of it. Even the very few people who manage to make a living from it need many many years to reach that point and I can't just sit around and wait for that day to come. Gotta earn money somehow.

Thank you for the link, this looks really helpful!

You're basically comfirming here what we all already suspected from your other comments. You're obviously a huge fan of Nam Joo Hyuk and thus blindly defending Do San and twisting the reality. Try to imagine Do San would be played by an actor you don't like. Would that change anything for you? If you learn to differentiate between actors and characters, a whole new world will open up to you.

I think there's also some men who see themselves in Do San and thus feel personally attacked by the backlash. Just to clarify, there's nothing wrong with having personality traits that are similar to Do San as long as you keep reflecting on yourself and growing (like everyone should do no matter their personality). He has some great character traits as well, it's not all negative. But if you blindly defend Do San's (and your) wrong actions, then that's problematic.

Indeed. I am seriously hoping that the writer's intention was to show the danger here. It would actually make the drama quite meaningful then. Sadly, I don't think the chances for this to happen are very high. Do San will most likely undergo some magic character growth and his past behavior will stay unadressed.

Imo this is why some women easily fall into toxic relationships. Sadly, not everyone is able to recognize the reality behind the sweet facade of some men. I hope that the writer of this drama does though.

And I do want to believe that some Do San defenders actually know this but don't want to see it because they love Nam Joo Hyuk and are unable to distinguish between the actor and the character. At least I really hope so.

Judging by how Do San has been behaving so far, I could easily see him turn into a perpetrator of domestic violence if he keeps going down the same path and doesn't reflect on his actions. Of course the drama won't go this far, just saying.

I completely agree with everything you said.

Hahahaha.

He didn't really stand out to me in 18 Again tbh (or maybe I was just too focused on Lee Do Hyun's amazing acting haha), but sure, that's possible. Let's see how he does in his upcoming drama.

Definitely. There are a few other rising stars but nothing compares to the Kim Seon Ho fever.

The list for this week's most trending drama actors is out:
1st place: Suzy (same as before)
2nd place: Nam Joo Hyuk (used to be on 3rd place until last week)
3rd place: Kim Seon Ho (before: from 9 to 6 to 4)

He's still rising! Do you guys think he can overtake Nam Joo Hyuk till the end of the drama? Haha. It might be hard though since netizens mention Joo Hyuk a lot as they have a lot to say about Do San's behavior.

Yes, they show the noodle scene.

Have you guys seen the latest bts clip? I guess they think we haven't seen enough crying scenes from Do San yet, now they even give us the bts of it lmfao.

But we get some Ji Pyung in the clip too! And even In Jae, that was a nice surprise. In Jae has more screentime in the bts than in the actual drama hahaha.

Lmfao.

I personally really liked it for being so different but it's weirdness is definitely not for everyone. And it was too short imo, so the transitions were sometimes confusing because they wanted to tell too much in the little amount of time they had. It can thus be hard to follow for people who don't know the story. The plot and the world that was created are very original though. It's based on an award-winning novel btw.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention the background music. The music is simply awesome.